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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26627800">Better Lucky than Good</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinguinoSentado/pseuds/PinguinoSentado'>PinguinoSentado</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fallout 4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>10 Luck 10 Charisma 1 Intelligence, Comedy of Errors, F/F, Femslash, Friends to Lovers, Multiple Pairings, Slow Burn, With One Pairing to Rule Them All</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:49:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>135,812</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26627800</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinguinoSentado/pseuds/PinguinoSentado</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When a hapless delivery driver is admitted to Vault 111 by accident, she finds her lucky streak is only just beginning.</p><p>Comments of all sorts are welcome. You can also find me on Tumblr at https://pinguinosentado.tumblr.com/</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Female Sole Survivor/Piper Wright, Magnolia/Piper Wright</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>292</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>207</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Special Delivery</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The car engine sputtered, coughed twice, and died the moment she shifted into park. She liked to think of it as a feature rather than a safety hazard. Picked up on the side of the road, the old girl looked like tin can and sounded like a fireworks display gone horribly wrong, but by God did she run. Five years on and still kicking.</p><p>Olivia patted the steering wheel fondly before reaching into the passenger seat, grabbing the little brown box resting on the cushion, and hopped out of the car, straight into traffic.</p><p>A horn blared, tires screeched as the driver swerved to avoid her, and Olivia fell back in her seat with a yelp. The offending car rocketed around her, the driver shouting almost loud enough to be understood over the pandemonium. Olivia blinked, pushing her hair back and taking a more cautious look around before leaving her car a second time. Somewhere down the street, she heard the car continuing to speed away, swerving around another van that looked to be coming very slowly up the other way.</p><p>Well, someone had a hot date. Olivia looked around, glad no one could hear her internal monologue while chuckling at its hilarity. She had barely skipped up the curb when her mood soured.</p><p>“Oh, come on,” she groaned, picking at the flimsy cardboard. Whoever had packed this order had done so without the Quantum Leap Home Delivery standard of excellence at heart. The tape had probably come off during the drive over and her close call with traffic had popped the top of the box open.</p><p>She poked around at the edges, trying to push things back in place when she noticed what was inside. Curious to a fault, when presented with a shiny object, Olivia was obligated to open the package fully, twenty feet from the home to which she was supposed to be delivering said package, and examine said object.</p><p>And an object it was. A beautiful necklace, encrusted with jewels and so expensive she likely could have sold it to pay her student loans in full, she pulled it from the mishandled box and let it sparkle in the sun. It was gorgeous. Jaw-droppingly, stunningly, belongs-on-the-neck-of-a-rich-noble-in-a-medieval-drama gorgeous.</p><p>The sunlight only made it more beautiful. She held it up, unable to resist the allure of something so shiny.</p><p>She was not the only one looking. Tossing the necklace a bit in her hand, with a flash of black wings and a horrible CAW! The necklace vanished from her hand, abruptly levitating and sparkling its way to the roof of the house before her.</p><p>Olivia, empty hand still in front of her, stared up at the crow that had decided Quantum Leap Home Delivery was not moving fast enough. Or perhaps it wanted her job. Little did it know it could not possibly compete with the low, low wages offered to those already employed.</p><p>Those low, low wages very nearly had Olivia get back in her car and roll away, but she had just been reprimanded for losing a delivery the day before. If she told her boss a crow stole her delivery, she would need to find somewhere else to work, and she had almost been at this job a year. A few more weeks and she would earn her one-year employee reward package. She could almost taste the Nuka-Cola.</p><p>“Come on, you!” she shouted at the offending animal who merely cocked its head in smug annoyance. “If you drop it in the next ten seconds, I don’t have to report you for theft. One. Two. Thre-”</p><p>Now it was the bird’s turn to vanish in a puff of black feathers and the loud pop of a child’s beebee gun.</p><p>Olivia winced, glancing behind her to see a few young boys on the far side of the street shouting and congratulating one another about the death of the commie corvid. Poor bird.</p><p>Well, so long as she could get the necklace back and get it delivered, she would at least keep her job. That was her reasoning as she climbed over the white picket fence and began creeping through the backyard. She was supposed to deliver this to their home, right? They never did specify what part of the home she was supposed to go to. This might even look good if she presented it the right way. She was handling unexpected complications on the job, going above and beyond to make sure the customer was satisfied.</p><p>Ducking beneath a window where a Mr Handy was bustling about inside the home, Olivia crept across the fancy stone pathway, over the perfectly-kept, all-American lawn, and onto the fancy patio where she discovered the thief’s body. Shot through the heart, the bird stared up at the sky, its last moments writ large on its face. It had flown too close to the sun.</p><p>Picking the necklace back up from the ground, Olivia stuffed it in her jeans pocket before quickly pulling it back out, praying nothing was broken. She couldn’t just shove it in her pocket with a half-eaten Fusion Chocolate bar.</p><p>Staring down at it, knowing she would need her hands to hop back over the fence, she slowly undid the clasp and pulled it about her neck, enjoying the feeling of being rich and fancy like these folks. It wouldn’t last, but she was determined to make the walk back to her sidewalk where she had dropped the box as dignified as possible.</p><p>She again ducked the window, scrambled toward the fence, and hopped her way over before coming around the side of the house to see yet another car parked on the curb. Next to her run-down wreck, the Vault-Tec van did not look much better, and that was as great an insult as any she could level at an automobile. A kind of camaraderie instantly formed between her and the nervous man standing out in front of the vehicle. He looked too miserable and nervous to form a full sentence, though that was not stopping him from trying. “Vault-Tec calling! No, no that’s stupid. Come on, keep it together. Can’t afford to screw this one up. Okay. Deep breaths.”</p><p>Olivia caught his attention and smiled, giving him a small wave. Poor guy was having a harder time than she was.</p><p>The man met her eyes, looking from her to the house to the necklace all before Olivia could process what was going on in his mind. “You there! Thank goodness you’re home! I’ve been trying to reach you for ages!”</p><p>Olivia, in turn, looked from her car, to the fancy house, to the desperate man, and decided there was no harm in giving him a little confidence boost. She could correct him after he gave his sales pitch. It might do wonders for him.</p><p>“And who are you?” she asked in her most cosmopolitan voice.</p><p>“Vault-Tec, my good woman. And I am so glad to see you. Now I see you’re a busy woman so I won’t take too much of your time, time being a precious commodity. Just stand like so and -” a lens flashed and left Olivia blinking in shock. “There we go. What was your name?”</p><p>“Uh. Olivia.”</p><p>“Very good. Now, thanks to your service to this great country, you’ve already been pre-enrolled in Vault One-Eleven! Prepared for the future!” The man shook his head and grumbled. “Sorry, that wasn’t right. Oh! I have some paperwork here that you will need to fill out. It’s mostly just a formality, though, so here -” He ripped a sheet off the clipboard and handed it to her. “Fill this out and get it back to the Vault when you can.”</p><p>Olivia blinked slowly, looking down at the form in her hand. “What - hey, this is your script!”</p><p>But the man was already hurrying away to get back in his van. Olivia looked down, studying the sheet and wondering what on earth he was supposed to have given the people that lived here. This was just a list of lines, an FAQ section, and a time that was circled three times and underlined. Was that his appointment time? He was only late by a few minutes. There was no reason to go rushing off like that.</p><p>Still wondering what to make of all this, Olivia began walking back to her car, the package she had been meant to deliver sitting on the roadside. She could still make this delivery, even if she did want to keep wearing the necklace.</p><p>That was when she noticed the open window. “Sir! Mum! You should come and see this!”</p><p>She had never heard a Mr Handy sound that nervous before. Suddenly afraid she had been caught, Olivia looked around for anyone coming out of the building to accost her and was surprised when she found no one. Instead, through the window, she saw a man and a woman, both the very images of suburban joy and success, standing in their living room and staring not at her but at the television.</p><p>Even from here, Olivia could hear the broadcast. “Yes. We’re getting… confirmed reports of nuclear detonations in New York and Pennsylvania. Oh, God.”</p><p>Olivia stood perfectly still. Nuclear detonations. That was bad. Nuclear bombs meant the end of, well, of everything. Oh, shit. Shit shit shit shit -</p><p>The door burst open and the woman’s voice rang out. “We have to get to the Vault! Now!”</p><p>She did not notice the girl wearing her necklace sprinting a dozen steps ahead of her.</p><p>She reached the Vault by virtue of following the crowds, darting among the panicked families and hurrying to the gate just behind the man that had taken her picture moments before. Everything happened in a blur of adrenaline and animal terror. The Vault entrance was guarded by two men in Power Armor with guns larger than she was, but even as she skidded to a halt behind a cross-section of America’s upper-middle class, everything felt completely insane. They were just standing in line, waiting. If the bombs vaporized them, it was better than being rude. And the soldiers just stood there, watching, waiting for any sign of disorder.</p><p>The man that had enrolled her suddenly rushed back the other way shouting “I’m reporting this!” if only to add to the profound end-of-life comedy they were all attending.</p><p>And then there was no one in front of her. A man in olive drab looked her up and down before glancing at his clipboard. “Name?”</p><p>“Olivia.”</p><p>There was a long pause. “Alright, head on in. Good luck, ma’am.”</p><p>No one had ever called her ma’am before but she was not about to complain now. “Thank you.”</p><p>She was rushed up the path, waved through by soldiers and men in security uniforms until she reached the platform. It was already almost full of people and Olivia found herself crowded into the middle.</p><p>Then more shouts rang out. “She wasn’t on the list! Someone grab her!”</p><p>Shit shit shit. There were a dozen men in military uniforms all around looking for her. She spun and found herself face-to-face with one who was staring right at her.</p><p>She didn’t move. He didn’t move. After a moment, he just nodded at her and turned away. When the man next to him recognized her and started to move, he shoved him back. “Leave her alone. It’s the end of the world. You want to keep her up here to die just because she wasn’t on the VIP list? Fuck that. I ain’t spending my last moments on earth enforcing corporate favoritism.”</p><p>Fuck that. Olivia never thought her life would come down to two words said so apathetically, but there it was. She got to live because this one person didn’t care enough to bother with her.</p><p>Soon the family she had stolen from crowded onto the platform, neither of them paying much attention to Olivia. They were hustled in behind her and were comforting their infant son when the world did end. A blinding flash of light burst on the horizon and Olivia could practically feel everything come crashing down. Her job, her horrible car, her apartment with the leaky faucet, everything was just gone. None of it mattered. It all seemed so trivial, so fake.</p><p>Those thoughts were blown from her mind as the platform shuddered and lowered just enough to keep the force of the detonation from throwing them all into the next state.</p><p>The ride down was awkward, to say the least, but at least they were all alive enough to be socially uncomfortable. When the lift reached the base of the shaft, Olivia found herself shuffling along with the rest of the residents, out of the metal cage and across a metal catwalk that would lead them into the Vault proper. Vault 111. Their new home.</p><p>They were given bright blue jumpsuits with the number on the back but Olivia wasn’t about to strip down and put it on right there. About halfway down the first corridor someone stopped her. “Hey. You were the stowaway, right?”</p><p>Oh, so someone did care. “Hey, I was on the list. They had my picture and everything.”</p><p>The man looked at her, unamused and unimpressed by what was actually the truth. After a moment, he smiled. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. Come with me. We’ll get you all settled in.”</p><p>Olivia followed him first to a bathroom where she squeezed into her jumpsuit, picking at all the pinch points where the suit did not quite fit, then down into what looked like something out of a science fiction movie. All along each wall were pods, their doors all shut save one. Peering through the glass, she was horrified to see faces staring back at her beyond the encrusted frost. What kind of a Vault was this?</p><p>“We had someone not quite make it to the elevator,” the man was saying. “So it seems you’re in luck. There’s a place for you after all.”</p><p>The man pointed to the pod and smirked in an entirely unprofessional manner. Olivia looked down at the blue suit that clung entirely too tight in all the wrong places. She was tempted to ask for another size but, looking up at the white lab coat that did not exactly scream medical professional, she decided she had other problems. “Don’t you need to know my medical history or something before I get in? Medications? Heart conditions?”</p><p>“Just get in the pod.”</p><p>No, probably not a medical professional. Without another word, Olivia climbed up into the pod and took what she assumed would be her last look at the world outside. The inside of the pod was a poorly-upholstered indentation that again did not quite fit her, resulting in her taking a few extra seconds to scoot up to where her feet dangled sadly off the floor.</p><p>“You really are lucky, you know,” the man said as he tapped on a nearby panel.</p><p>It was the last thing she heard before the doors slid shut and an electronic voice began counting down from five. She did not even hear it reach three before she was fast asleep, the cold of the chamber overwhelming her and whatever luck had brought her this far.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Animal Friend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Olivia wakes up in Vault 111, unsure of the year, and begins exploring what remains of the Vault. It does not take her long to discover she is not alone.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sound of her alarm going off made Olivia twist and turn in her bed. One arm went out to hit the snooze button and struck something solid, turning her groans of annoyance into a moans of pain. Her whole hand throbbed as she tried to turn all the way over. She must have hit it harder than she thought.</p>
<p>Something poked her in the side as she rolled and her head thumped against the side table. No, not the side table. Was it her car window? She was so groggy she couldn’t remember if she had fallen asleep in her bed, her car, or on her couch watching late night tv.</p>
<p>When the cold began to seep in, she realized it must have been her car. Her mind was sluggish as she tried to remember when she had fallen asleep. She thought she had gotten out of this stage of her life. She’d rented an apartment, hadn’t she? Finally getting off the street and settling down had been such a boost, such a wonderful chance for a new start. Had she dreamed all that?</p>
<p>She leaned forward to rest her head on the steering wheel, unwilling to open her eyes and face the waking world.</p>
<p>The waking world came up to meet her as she slammed face-first into the floor.</p>
<p>“Ow.” Olivia now opened one eye if only just to see where it was she had landed. The diamond plate steel flooring now biting into her cheek told her this was not her apartment and the room was a bit more spacious than her car, so she was fresh out of ideas.</p>
<p>Until, bit by bit, the end of the world came back to her. She closed her eyes tighter against the memories and brought her hands up over her head. The panic attack she had left behind at the rather abbreviated Vault 111 orientation now caught up with her, rested and ready.</p>
<p>“Deep breaths, Olivia. Deep breaths,” she told herself. “There’s still power. There’s still air conditioning. The world didn’t end. You’ll get up, there’ll be microwaves and new shows to stream. It’s a new world.”</p>
<p>Her heart still felt like it was going through a blender, but at least she was able to breathe again. With a great deal of effort, she pushed herself to her feet and began her search for frozen meals and daytime television. At the tender age of twenty, she wasn’t sure what else was supposed to motivate her.</p>
<p>The desire to get out of the cold at least pushed her from the freezing room. All the other cryo pods were sealed, so she assumed she had overslept. Or maybe they had woken her up first. That would be just her luck. They probably left her a note asking her to clean the floors before the really important people woke up. If she got back in her pod now and closed it, maybe someone else would have to do it.</p>
<p>When she reached the hallway, she was pleasantly surprised by the lack of a mop and bucket and incredibly distressed by the lack of everything else. No noise except for the distant rumble of a generator and the rattle of recirculated air, no people in any direction, and nothing but her growling stomach for company.</p>
<p>“Alright, settle down, I’ll get you fed,” she grumbled before peering down the dimly-lit corridor. “Hello? Anyone up? I think my pod broke. Or something. So I’m just gonna use the bathroom and, uh, head back in. Is that cool?”</p>
<p>No one answered. Hoping this was just a sign of terrible service or that she had woken up in the middle of the night, she took a few more cautious steps into the corridor. She could see a toolbox and ladder at the end of the hall, so that was a good sign. At least someone was working on fixing that rattling.</p>
<p>Her mood abruptly fell flat when she saw what was left of that person. A skeleton in a mouldering blue jumpsuit lay splayed out on the ground, a wrench in one desiccated hand.</p>
<p>That is not a good sign.</p>
<p>“Okay,” Olivia said to the skeleton. “It’s almost Halloween. Probably just a prop. Right? Not even that realistic. Totally fake.”</p>
<p>She was suddenly very grateful her stomach was empty. The skeleton did look pretty real, but what else was she supposed to do? Getting back in her pod seemed like the best option, but she really did need to find a bathroom. She was also concerned about refreezing herself without knowing how all the knobs and buttons worked. That would probably not go well.</p>
<p>The wall signage pointed her to a room down the hall and to the right, through a cluttered game room, and, praise Vault-Tec, did not steer her wrong. There were no skeletons in these room, either, furthering her delusion that everything was just an elaborate Halloween prank. She made good use of the facilities and, on her way out the door, stopped dead in her tracks as she realized she was not alone.</p>
<p>A roach the size of a german shepard stood perched on a table in the middle of the abandoned room. It sat staring at her, antennae twitching in an especially menacing way and making hissing noises that made her feel sick to her stomach.</p>
<p>“Oh, you’re big, aren’t you?” she asked, sizing up the distance of about twenty feet that separated them. It looked like it could fly and soon began fluttering its transparent wings as though preparing to take off and eat her face while it was still attached to her body. “Okay! Okay, settle down now. We’re both reasonable. Didn’t know this was your room. You look - are you hungry? You’re probably hungry.”</p>
<p>More twitching and hissing ensued as Olivia, sure she was about to end up like an extra in a Jurassic Park film, reached into her pocket for that half-eaten Fusion bar. The creature shuffled a bit, its feet tik-tacking on the plastic surface of the table.</p>
<p>“Yeah? You like this?” Olivia, desiring more than anything to leave this room on her legs and not piece by piece in a bug’s stomach, began unwrapping the plastic.</p>
<p>The roach leapt forward, startling Olivia so badly she tossed the chocolate bar forward, wrapper still attached and fluttering behind. Lucky for her, it did not seem interested in her and had only jumped to the floor. The big bug scuttled forward to where she had tossed the candy bar, probing it with its mandibles and testing the air carefully.</p>
<p>With a lunge and a flash of silver, both candy bar and foil disappeared into the roach’s stomach. She could swear it burped in satisfaction before licking its lips, assuming it had any, and taking a few more careful steps toward Olivia.</p>
<p>She decided that, on her long list of regrets, being killed by a bug was probably at the top. “Hey! Come on, that’s all I’ve got! If you didn’t like that, you’re going to hate how I taste! I just got frozen and - wait, what are you doing?”</p>
<p>The roach sidled up to her, nudging her leg and clicking at her in a way that was slightly less horrible than before.</p>
<p>“Wait.” She stared down at it, meeting its beady little eyes and squinting to see its thoughts. “You’re friendly? You are friendly, right? You’re not going to just eat my foot now that I gave you my only candy bar?”</p>
<p>Offended, the roach squealed in protest and nudged against her leg harder, clicking and scuttling in a little circle. Olivia allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. “Okay. Hey, you’re not so bad, are you?”</p>
<p>More happy squeals ensued and Olivia found the end-of-life tension easing from her shoulders. “Great. Come on, then, let’s go find everyone else. We’re going to have to give you a name, now, aren’t we?”</p>
<p>The roach trotted along happily beside her as she made her way back out into the Vault, which she quickly determined was in fact abandoned and not just very well decorated for Halloween. She tried to avoid stepping on the skeletons, apologizing profusely and trying pointedly to ignore the fact that her new pet roach had probably eaten some of them. She thought he could have, anyway, unless she had been out for a really, really long time. Or maybe it had been a few days, this little guy had gotten in and just gone to town on the rest of the people in here. That was a horrible thought.</p>
<p>But as the roach fluttered up to the countertop of the Vault kitchen and buzzed happily until she gave it a few tentative head pats, she figured that was not the case. Or maybe it was, and she had just befriended the most powerful bug to ever have lived. That would make for an interesting story, she thought, except that it ended in three or four days when she could not find any food or water.</p>
<p>She spent a long while ransacking every cabinet, drawer, and refrigerator in the kitchen, praying she would find something other than dust and empty tin cans. Her bug friend shadowed her, squeaking with disappointment when she produced no Salisbury steaks or snack cakes from empty air. It was disappointing for her, too. Running water she had, at least in some supply, but would not last long here without food. It would just be her and a giant roach, together, forever, or until said roach decided she was more useful as food than company.</p>
<p>For now, at least, her pet seemed to have other ideas. Olivia followed him as he buzzed out of the kitchen and down the halls, until they found what looked like a fancy office. Another skeleton slumped behind a dusty wooden desk with a terminal and the far wall was dominated by a very large, half-open metal door. She was just getting used to the dessicated human remains, so when she saw more dead roaches clustered just beyond the door, her stomach did unexpected summersaults.</p>
<p>“Oh, don’t look,” she groaned, holding her hand in front of the roach’s eyes. “You’re so young - I think - and small, you shouldn’t be seeing this. Unless you did it. Did you do this?”</p>
<p>The roach was indifferent, scuttling over to the bodies and snuffling around before scuttling back.</p>
<p>“You’ve got some pretty thick skin, buddy.” She tilted her head, regarding the creature that was now trying to eat what remained of a clipboard. “Must be nice, not caring that your friends are all dead.”</p>
<p>She proceeded, with a deliberate lack of self-awareness, to step over another skelton next to the open door and peer down the hallway. There were more dead bugs, but something else on the floor grabbed her attention. She leaned down and poked carefully at what looked like a spent bullet casing.</p>
<p>Her new friend came up beside her and proceeded to snatch it from her fingers, crushing and swallowing it before she could protest. “Did that taste fresh, boy?”</p>
<p>The roach did not respond, so Olivia assumed that was a no. She did not want to imagine that there was someone else wandering around the Vault, someone with an itchy trigger finger and good enough to blow away so many large bugs. She did, however, creep down the next corridor with more care than she had previously shown.</p>
<p>When she reached the end, she saw a familiar sight. The entrance to the Vault, where they had passed out their blue suits and the man in the white coat had taken her away to be popsicled, felt like walking into another reality. She had only been here for a short moment, but after watching her home vanish in a burst of wind and light, that impossibly short amount of time had felt like the start of a new life. Already she had begun to think of this as her home, as her entire world, and when the great Vault door had slammed closed behind them, she had thought that was that.</p>
<p>Her pet roach disagreed, flitting happily up toward the door that now stood wide open. The floor between her and the exit was littered with more skeletons that she politely ignored, carefully making her way up to the metal catwalk that bridged the gap between worlds. She stood on the span for a long moment, looking over her shoulder at the dead Vault. There wasn’t any food in the kitchen and Big Green would get hungry eventually, so her only option was a Han Solo-esque eternity in cryo sleep, assuming she could even get it started again. She would probably thaw out eventually but she doubted anyone would stock the fridge - no pun intended - while she was sleeping. Sooner or later, she would have to take the elevator up to what she now assumed was the surface of Mars.</p>
<p>She looked down at the roach who happily fluttered his wings. “What do you say, Big Green? Ready to hit the road?”</p>
<p>A buzzing of wings and a seemingly happy trill from the giant, still-grotesque bug spurred her toward the elevator. “Alright, let’s go find some food. But the first candy bar is mine. You already ate.”</p>
<p>Crossing the chasm, she descended the stairs and pushed the button to call the elevator. It only occurred to her as the lift descended that it probably should have still been at the bottom. Remembering the dead roaches, the opened doors, and the ransacked kitchen, she realized there must have been someone else that escaped the Vault.</p>
<p>It had to have been some of the staff. She had trouble imagining any of the well-to-do folks in Sanctuary Hills dirtying their hands enough to crush so many giant bugs.</p>
<p>Big Green hopped on the lift with her as she pushed the button that would take them to the surface. “Well, here goes nothing.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Ricochet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Olivia's Luck brings her face to face with a group of Raiders, and a programming error in a beloved Protectron noodle server sends Piper looking for her next story</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The lift rose in total darkness for what felt like hours. More than once the gears seemed to catch, grinding and making otherworldly noises that seemed to agitate Big Green. Olivia stood on the platform and covered her ears, hoping all the while that the doors at the top would open and not just crush her against the lift like, well, a bug.</p><p>Open they did, and the sun’s rays proved far more intense than the dim lights of Vault 111. Her hands abandoned her poor ears to attend to her eyes and she rose into the new world with arms above her head in a vain effort to keep herself from going blind.</p><p>When the gears did stop, she heard the flutter of wings and, against all odds, the voice of another human being.</p><p>“There! Another one!”</p><p>Olivia spun toward the voice but was still blind and so could only make out distant blurs. “Hello?”</p><p>“Why didn’t you just shoot her? I told you to shoot whoever comes up! We can’t take any more chances, not after what the last one did.”</p><p>Shoot? Olivia blinked harder, willing her vision to clear and focusing on the figures now standing about twenty feet away. Despite the desolate landscape, skeletonized cars, and bleached human bones baking in the sunlight, she found herself unwilling to look away from the filthy men with what must have been guns pointed right at her.</p><p>“Look at her,” one was saying, pointing with his gun and making Olivia cringe in instinctive terror. “She’s got her hands up and everything. I ain’t gonna shoot her. She’s gonna come quietly, just you watch. Ain’t you, girl?”</p><p>Suddenly longing for the peaceful, merciful end offered by starvation and giant cockroaches, Olivia just nodded meekly. Icy fear gripped her stomach as even her hunger was forgotten. “Please don’t shoot.”</p><p>Some of the other figures laughed. “See? This one’s no trouble.”</p><p>“You looking for your friend, girl?”</p><p>Again, Olivia looked around, hoping to see Big Green coming in for an attack run. “No. Looks like he flew off.”</p><p>There was a pause as she said that. “Vault Dwellers can fly?”</p><p>The one in charge groaned loudly. “Not the Radroach, you idiot! The woman!”</p><p>“I - I’m sorry, I don’t know who you mean!”</p><p>“Come on, don’t play games!” the man shouted back, taking several threatening steps toward her. “She just came out of here a few hours ago, killed a bunch of my guys, then went off toward Concord. You’re really gonna stand there and bullshit me when you have the same big-ass gold number on your suit?”</p><p>When he put it like that, it did sound pretty stupid, and her explanation was hardly convincing even to someone who had lived through it. Her eyes finally adjusted to the sun, she kept her hands above her head as the angry man came closer. Everyone here wore clothing so dust-caked it had since turned brown, the only color on them the bits of rusted metal they wrapped around their bodies and formed into spikes. That must have been miserably uncomfortable if they fell over or got bumped into. All of them carried what looked like copper pipes, holding them like guns and pointing them at Olivia, who had no desire to see whether or not they actually worked.</p><p>The angry man had scars all over his face and matted facial hair in the spaces left untouched. “Tell me the truth or I’ll shoot you in the gut and leave you for the birds!”</p><p>“That’s the truth, I swear!” Olivia shouted, frantically looking around for any escape, any way to stay alive.</p><p>The man reached her and stopped, his face going bright red before reaching to his belt and pulling out what looked like an old timey revolver. “Okay. I believe you.”</p><p>Olivia was still looking at the gun. “Uh, you do?”</p><p>“No.” In one swift motion, the man pulled the hammer back and pointed it right at her head. “And I can’t fucking stand liars.”</p><p>Olivia’s legs, already trembling, suddenly found a burst of energy born of sheer terror and desperation. She screamed, trying to launch herself backward but it was too late. There was a loud bang and a flash of bright light and she was on her back, looking up at the sky.</p><p>She lay there for a moment, watching the blue fade in and white clouds move across its unblemished surface. This was for the best. She never would have survived in a world without food delivery and movies on demand. And with everyone replaced by crazy, gun-toting lunatics who dressed like Mad Max extras, there was no place for her in that world. Whatever waited beyond this one, whether it be pearly gates or a new life in a new body or another existence beyond human comprehension, that was more a home for her than a world she no longer recognized.</p><p>“Uh, is she dead?”</p><p>Olivia blinked in confusion. She recognized that voice.</p><p>With a groan, she picked herself up, looked around, and nearly broke down crying when she realized she had not even gone anywhere. She was still here, on this barren hilltop, surrounded by murderers, psychopaths, and the bones of the dead. And so was the one who had tried to shoot her, only he was now flat on his back in front of her, gun lying to one side, no longer moving or shouting.</p><p>A few of the angry men with guns pointed them at her again. “What the fuck? How did she do that?”</p><p>“Yo, is he dead? Someone poke him.”</p><p>“The fuck do you mean, is he dead? Fucking look at him!”</p><p>“Oh my God, I think he shot himself.”</p><p>“Shot himself? How?”</p><p>“I don’t know, man, but he made it happen! Dude wasted himself. That’s too good.”</p><p>The chatter quieted down a bit as Olivia slowly got to her feet, looking down in barely-contained terror at the dead man. Sure enough, there was an awful-looking red wound in his head, like a third eye that had begun to - begun to -</p><p>“Oh, and she’s gonna be sick.”</p><p>“Gross.”</p><p>“Probably never seen that in the Vault before, huh girly? Ha!”</p><p>“Yo, shut the fuck up or she might kill you, too.”</p><p>“That’s not - you’re not serious. You’re not serious, are you?”</p><p>“Look at that shit! She just fucking pulled the bullet out of thin air and pushed it into his head!”</p><p>“That is absolutely not what happened.”</p><p>“Well then you explain it!”</p><p>As the men - and women, now that she heard them - argued about what had just happened, Olivia wiped the sides of her mouth on her fresh blue Vault suit and groaned. If her stomach hadn’t been empty before, it sure was now. She heard herself groaning, loudly and against her will, as her stomach roiled and heaved. How much of this was due to being frozen for however long and how much of it was due to the dead man, she could only guess. Blood had always made her queasy.</p><p>Footsteps brought her eyes up to another figure, this one a man wearing what looked like an old scarf and a burlap bag around his head in a Lawrence of Arabia look that at least was not quite as terrifying as the last.</p><p>“Hey. Uh. So, we don’t really care about you Vault types. We weren’t gonna hurt you or anything. You know that, right?”</p><p>She knew nothing of the kind, but she tried to make herself nod.</p><p>“Great!” The man actually breathed out a sigh of relief. “Man, what did they do to you in that Vault? The last one that came out fought like a Deathclaw, and then you show up with a pet Radroach and psychic powers. That’s some crazy shit.”</p><p>Again, she could only nod.</p><p>“Listen, uh, we’ve got a place. Not sure where you’re going, but we’ve got shelter. And food.”</p><p>One of the women now piped up. “What the fuck are you talking about? Just kill her and -”</p><p>“Quiet!” another hissed. “Boss has been obsessed over this Sight bullshit ever since that Mama Murphy gal went missing. This girl comes around and starts shooting people with their own bullets? He’ll go nuts over this shit. And he won’t make us go to Concord where the other one went.”</p><p>There was some grumbling but the woman eventually said. “Probably right. Wish I could watch that chick curb stop some more of you idiots, though. Man, that was fun.”</p><p>Whoever else had survived Vault 111, Olivia was sorry she had not met them sooner. She could have used someone with survival skills and similar interests, like the mixing of soap and water. When she got to her feet, this new figure was eyeing her up and down curiously.</p><p>Someone else shouted from behind. “Come on! If she’s got powers, make her prove it! I ain’t wasting my time on this shit otherwise.”</p><p>The man slowly nodded. “What do you call that?”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“We knew someone who could see the future. She called it the Sight. What do you call, you know,” he gestured at the dead man and mimed dropping to the ground. “Whatever that was?”</p><p>Olivia looked behind her and for the first time noticed the twisted hulk of a crashed vertibird. She suddenly remembered hearing the shot and the clang of metal, thinking it was just her head hitting the Vault elevator or something. Now she could see a fresh crease in one of the engine-looking things.</p><p>“Luck,” she said, unable to think of anything else.</p><p>The man chuckled. “That’s a name for it. Alright. Why don’t you come with us and you can meet our boss?”</p><p>The rest of the group began slowly trudging from their positions in the long grass. Some came out from behind the wrecked cars. There were so many of them and every one of them looked armed, angry, and desperate.</p><p>That was it. She had no choice. Pretend she had psychic powers or hope she really could make bullets fly back into people’s faces.</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p> </p><p>“The Synthetic Truth!”</p><p>Nat looked up at her older sister, apparently unimpressed by what was obviously the best title for the budding piece.</p><p>“What?” Piper folded her arms and looked down at her editor-in-chief. “Come on, that’s brilliant.”</p><p>“Why, because it has Synth in it?” Nat asked, though from her tone Piper couldn’t tell if she was being serious or just trying to annoy her.</p><p>“Synthetic is fake, truth is truth! Come on,” Piper begged. “We’ve been sitting on this for two days. It’s been reviewed, polished, spit-shined until there’s nothing left but the words at the top.”</p><p>“You always say that’s the most important part!” Her younger sister had an annoying way of remembering all the things she said, did, promised, and forgot about. “You can’t ignore it because you want to print it now.”</p><p>“If we wait any longer, it’ll be old news.”</p><p>Nat actually snorted. “Who's gonna leak it, the other papers?”</p><p>“Keep talking and we might actually get some competition and Lord help us then!” Piper flailed angrily and looked around the barren metal walls that housed Publick Occurrences, home of the Wright family and popular stop for drunkards eager to empty their bladder.</p><p>At least they were getting noticed. Nat folded her arms and set her small jaw in determination. Where she got such a stubborn attitude from, Piper could only guess.</p><p>After a long moment, Piper capitulated. “Fine. I’ll give it some thought. But it’s a good title!”</p><p>“It’s not bad,” Nat admitted as Piper stalked off toward the door. “But you always say it needs to be perfect. You shouldn’t give up just because you want to get it out now. What good will it be if no one reads it?”</p><p>“I know, I know! I’m going to get some lunch. Whistle for me if anything interesting comes up.”</p><p>As Piper opened the door, she distinctly heard her sister say “LIke what?” and knew in that moment the girl would spend the rest of her afternoon loafing around the house.</p><p>Which, honestly, was fine. She wasn’t exactly sold on the title, either, she just wanted to get the damn thing out the door. The fire it would start when it was published; Piper could almost hear the Dugout Inn buzzing over it now. Synth infiltrators, possibly as high up as the Mayor, and no one doing a thing about it. Sure, there would be some overreactions, some people might go to bed afraid and lose a little sleep, but the truth needed to get out there somehow. If they just rolled over and ignored the Institute, people would keep disappearing forever, and that was not something Piper Wright would allow.</p><p>Piper Wright, now thinking of herself in the third person, would also not allow herself to go hungry, and so did she make her way across the market to the source of Diamond City’s only edible food. Good old Power Noodles had provided her with many a fine meal over the years and also afforded her a wonderful spot to sit and listen to the latest gossip.</p><p>Some of that gossip muted itself when she appeared, unfortunately, and she wondered again if wearing a bright red coat everywhere was making her unnecessarily difficult. Again, she decided it was better to be noticed when she went out to lunch or to the shops. It got people comfortable with her look, her style, and her personality. That made it easier to subvert that in times of actual need, allowing her to don her travelling kit, put her hat away, and blend in with the rest of the people.</p><p>“Yo, Takahashi! Let’s eat!”</p><p>There was no response.</p><p>Piper leaned over the counter and looked up at what would have been the Protectron’s face. “I said, yo.”</p><p>Again, there was no response. The lights flickered, some metal things in his head whirled around in a circle, but nothing happened.</p><p>Someone sitting next to her was watching the whole thing with mounting anxiety, as though worried Piper would suddenly pull out her pistol and go to town on the robot for not answering her. She wasn’t that wound up.</p><p>That said, she did want her noodles very badly. “What’s with him?”</p><p>The unfortunate woman gave her a helpless shrug. It was difficult not to notice the steaming bowl of noodles directly in front of her. “Sorry, Piper, I don’t know.”</p><p>“When did he give you that?!”</p><p>“Five minutes ago. Maybe he’s on the fritz or something.”</p><p>Piper leaned forward, waving her hand in front of Takahashi’s robot face. As she did so, someone new sat down just a few seats away, and the familiar greeting resounded. “Nani shimasuka?”</p><p>The woman next to her actually chuckled. “Maybe he doesn’t like you. Heard you talking about his friends.”</p><p>“His friends,” Piper grumbled. “Probably an Institute agent. Something’s fishy here, and if I can’t eat here, I’ll just…”</p><p>While Piper declined even to think of the food offered at the Dugout Inn, the other woman turned away, enjoying a steaming hot bowl of noodles. While the traitorous robot served the newest customer, then the one after him, then the one after her, Piper sat on her seat and stewed. This was supposed to be the easy part of the day where she was able to unwind and listen to the voices of the people.</p><p>She could still hear a few of those voices, and she chose to filter out the ones making jokes at her expense. Luckily for her, there was someone else in the market coping with an empty stomach to distract her from her own.</p><p>“I’m not eating that garbage.”</p><p>Someone in front of Myrna’s shop, all but declaring himself a Synth by insulting the staple food of Diamond City, was pawing through a pile of junk and holding a packet of snack cakes in one hand. Myrna regarded him with suspicion. “Why don’t you like the noodles? You never been to the city or something?”</p><p>“No, I used to live here. Ate so many of the damned things I got sick of them.” The man sighed, holding the snack cakes at arm’s length as though afraid they might bite. “How old are these? Whatever, it doesn’t matter. How much?”</p><p>The thought had actually never occurred to Piper, but now it seemed almost too obvious to ignore. What would happen if Diamond City had a food shortage? There was enough ramen in the shop to feed them for decades, if not centuries, but if the stash ever went missing or caught fire, that was it. The Dugout Inn had some unspeakably foul meat stored in the back and the butcher was always hanging fresh cuts up for display, but she could not shake the thought of famine sweeping the streets.</p><p>On her mind, too, were the recent rumors of something called the Federal Ration Stockpile and its endless mountains of food behind heavily secured doors. If someone could just get past those, maybe find an old password or pick a lock on the correct door, Diamond City would have enough food for generations, fickle Protectrons be damned.</p><p>Lucky for Diamond City, Piper thought as she stood, someone was looking out for the people here. It was a short trip and Nat had been right to question the title of their new article. She could investigate the stockpile and be back in time to drop her latest bombshell on sleepy Diamond City. They were so determined to ignore her. Let’s see what they said when she brought them news of infinite steaks, cakes, and Nuka Cola.</p><p>She strode off toward Publick Occurrences, her mind made up. Sometimes, you just got lucky, and the stories came to you.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Flip of a Coin</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Olivia is taken south with the Raiders toward Lexington where she will be turned over in the hopes that her Luck is as impressive as the Sight. But the Wasteland is a dangerous place, and sometimes a bit of bad luck is all it takes to walk right into an ambush.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Every step Olivia took into this new world, the more she wondered if her luck getting into Vault 111 was spectacularly good or singularly bad. Everything was dead. The cars were dead, the trees were dead, the grass was dead, even the buildings were dead. The only things living were the animals, all of which probably wished they were dead, and the people, who looked determined to make everything they came across dead.</p><p>They had barely left Sanctuary Hills when they came across a river, still crossable at a worn stone bridge, but choked with debris and looked a sickly shade of green. She had hardly set foot on the stone before she noticed massive flies gathering near a pile of rags on the far side of the river.</p><p>No, not rags, people. And beneath them, spreading across the road in a pool, was a puddle of red that again made Olivia feel woozy.</p><p>One of the women laughed. “Ah, man, look at this shit. Beautiful.”</p><p>“What’s the matter with you?” the group’s new leader snapped, looking past Olivia to glare at the woman. “If you hadn’t been with us, you’d be lying right there next to them.”</p><p>The others didn’t seem to be stopping and so Olivia forced herself to keep going, looking up at the sky and hoping her foot didn’t bump anything while she walked. When she got to the far side of the bridge and the road continued toward Concord, she looked to the man who was still keeping a close eye on her.</p><p>“Was that, you know, the other Vault Dweller?”</p><p>The man gave her a suspicious look. “You Vault types don’t talk much or what?”</p><p>“Not really.” She didn’t see much point in lying to him, and maybe if he thought she really did have psychic pre-war powers he would leave her alone. “We were all frozen. They didn’t want us fighting, I guess.”</p><p>His eyes widened and seemingly took the bait. “Frozen? How long? Do you mean from before the war?”</p><p>Olivia nodded quietly, exaggerating her own unease and looking dramatically into the middle distance. “I can still see the Old World, sometimes.”</p><p>The bloodthirsty woman sidled up next to her. “How many of you were down there?”</p><p>That took more quick math than Olivia was prepared to do. “I don’t know. Not many. A couple dozen.”</p><p>“Fuck. That. Shit.” The woman shook her head and pointed back at the bridge. “A couple dozen of you and you could run the fucking world.”</p><p>“You talk too much, Stella.”</p><p>“Fuck off, Trent.”</p><p>The man turned bright red. “It’s Watcher, now, damnit.”</p><p>“Yeah? You use my name, I’ll use yours. Fair’s fair.”</p><p>Stella grinned and waited for Trent Watcher to cool off enough to reply. “Alright. Hot Rod.”</p><p>“Good boy.”</p><p>Watcher - it was probably safer to think of him by his chosen name - seethed but held his tongue. Hot Rod looked back at the carnage with such a look of longing that Olivia began concocting other names for her, like Vulture or Hyena.</p><p>The sun blazed down on them and the Vault suit began to stick in uncomfortable places while they walked, making her wonder not only how long she would live but how awful she would smell by the end. They passed dead animals by the score, most of which had other creatures feeding on them already, and burned-out cars in equal numbers. She should have gone back for her own car. It had probably not fared much better than these, but there was always a chance.</p><p>“How much farther is it?” she asked after the first hour.</p><p>Watcher sniffed. “Not used to walking above ground, huh? Well, you’d best get used to it. We’ll be going all day and most of tomorrow. Probably going to stop south of Concord. Don’t want to bump into your friend again.”</p><p>Passing Concord took longer than Olivia remembered, though she had only ever made this journey in a car, so that probably colored her perception of the distance. The sound of gunfire spurred Hot Rod to groans of ecstasy, something that made even her companions uncomfortable. At least Olivia was not alone when she took a few steps further away.</p><p>They stopped for the night near the banks of the Charles. Olivia had seen things moving in the empty streets that made her grateful for the heavily-armed people keeping watch at night. What looked like shambling wrecks of people skittered on all fours across heaps of rubble and they were not the worst. She had always hated flies, but seeing one the size of a beagle humming toward her with the same bass tones as a 747 had been an experience all its own. Hot Rod had blown it apart before it got close but she swore she could still hear it droning behind her, still alive and looking for her.</p><p>She never thought she would miss a giant cockroach, but she still looked out for Big Green, waiting for him to swoop in and consume the psychopaths around her. During the walk, she had learned they called themselves Raiders, and the name alone told her how much hope to have in this future.</p><p>The waiting turned to wishing when Hot Rod stopped in front of her, staring with uncomfortable intensity at her wrist. “You said you were a Vault Dweller, right?”</p><p>Olivia looked down at her suit and nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”</p><p>“You guess.” She did not look impressed with the answer, though from what Olivia could tell, what impressed this woman was a little outside her comfort zone.</p><p>“I mean, I was in the Vault. They put us to sleep.” She looked around to the other Raiders, noticing with some distress that Watcher and a few others were paying close attention.</p><p>Hot Rod took a few steps forward and knelt, brandishing a knife Olivia had not seen drawn. “Like our dear friend Tim said, we really hate liars around here.”</p><p>Olivia was suddenly grateful for her choking thirst. If they had offered her any water during the day, she would have wet herself with it now.</p><p>“Yeah, remember what happened to him?” Watcher said with a harsh laugh. “Come on, girl, let’s see what you’ve got. She’s asking for it.”</p><p>“See, I think maybe those psychic powers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Maybe we all got a little excited, started seeing things.” Hot Rod lashed out, grabbing Olivia’s wrist hard enough to make her yelp. “And look! No Pip-Boy! I’ve cut enough off of Vault Dwellers to know they’ve always got one. The way they scream when you take them - if you don’t have one, you’re not from a Vault!”</p><p>Her heart was hammering now and Olivia found herself too terrified to choose between yanking her wrist away and trying to convince her otherwise. Instead, she sat there, panicked as a deer in the headlights, waiting for the car to smash into her.</p><p>“Come on, take that knife and put it between her eyes,” Watcher said, suddenly beside her. “If you really do have powers like this, Jared will take you in and we’ll protect you. You use that stuff to help us, we can take control of Lexington - hell, maybe even the Wasteland.”</p><p>“But if you don’t.” Hot Rod brandished the knife and looked like she was about to stab it into her exposed wrist. “Then I get to watch you bleed to death in the moonlight. Oh, it’s going to be so sweet to watch. I’m looking forward to it.”</p><p>Olivia was dead. There was no way out of this. She had no crazy psychic powers, no way to take the knife away. She had always meant to take self defense classes, she had just never had the time. There was always something else she needed to be doing first. Not that it would have helped her in the slightest here, but it was something she found time to regret as Hot Rod grinned and brought the knife down to her arm.</p><p>The knife struck her, but there was no weight behind it. It just bounced off, clattering to the floor without even breaking the skin. Olivia just stared as Hot Rod, the horrible grin on her face slowly going slack, toppled forward into her lap, unmoving.</p><p>For a moment, no one moved. Watcher laughed and some of the others began to laugh with him, but no one actually moved. Olivia was staring at Hot Rod’s back, eyes fixed on the bit of metal poking from her jacket.</p><p>“How’d you do that?” Watcher asked through his laughter. “Oh, I almost feel bad for her. I don’t, but almost. What a show! Hey, do one of these other idiots.”</p><p>The other Raiders all suddenly started shouting and pointing at one another. Olivia pulled her hand away slowly, Hot Rod’s grasp now limp and somehow even more terrifying. She scrambled a few steps back from the woman and looked around, her eyes fixing on one of the Raiders now shrinking from the firelight. This one had been singled out by several of his comrades who suddenly thought his life would mean more as a two-second display of paranormal murder than anything else.</p><p>Olivia watched as he looked to her, met her gaze, and panicked. “Wait, I -”</p><p>Then he dropped. Watcher laughed. The others laughed. Olivia’s eyes threatened to pop out of her head.</p><p>“Alright, alright, that’s enough.” Watcher came forward next to her, hands up. “We surrender.”</p><p>“Good!”</p><p>The voice echoed from the darkness, confusing everyone. Raiders spun in all directions, guns out.</p><p>But the shadows answered, producing more armed figures. More of those strange, copper weapons gleamed in the light. Some of the Raiders around Olivia swore but no one fired, not yet. They all just stood up, the ones outside the light jeering and taunting those within.</p><p>Someone must have fired the first shot, but Olivia had no idea who it was. The gunfire soon ripped through the air so loudly she put her hands over her ears and pushed herself into the dirt to try and make herself small. She was so scared, she forgot all about the dead woman lying on her legs. The whole thing was horrible, more horrible than anything she had ever gone through.</p><p>But it was over almost before she could be properly scarred by it. Groans and moans of Raiders hit by bullets came from all around her. She turned to see Watcher in the dirt a few feet away, alive but looking as miserable as she felt. He didn’t say anything, just looked at her in expectant terror.</p><p>If she truly had psychic powers, this would have been a wonderful time for them to manifest. Unfortunately for her, she was just a girl lying face down in the dirt, hoping no one noticed she was trying to stifle terrified sobs.</p><p>“What. The fuck. Was that?” A woman’s voice, quiet and calm in its own, horrifying way, came from over her shoulder. She did not look up to see who it was. “Sur-ren-der. I get it, it’s a long word. Three whole syllables is three times more than you can usually struggle through but somehow you did. And then you shot at me. That hurts, Trent. That hurts.”</p><p>“It’s -”</p><p>“I know, I know. God, you care more about your name than how many of your people are no longer around to say it.” Footsteps crunched against the dirt, coming closer to her head until they were surely right beside her. “Speaking of people, who is this lovely thing?”</p><p>A nudge from one of those boots told Olivia the game was up and she rolled over to face her death belly up.</p><p>“A Vault dweller?” the woman looking down at her looked strangely pretty in the light, her hair tied back and with none of the grime or filth that had covered the other Raiders. She was, however, well armed, and her composure made her that much more intimidating. “You poor thing. Did this mean man kidnap you?”</p><p>She looked to Watcher in fear, unsure of how to answer.</p><p>“Don’t worry, he can’t hurt you anymore.” Her grin broadened as she paused. “But I sure can. So be a good girl and answer my question.”</p><p>Of course she could. Olivia felt herself sink further into the dirt, wishing it would just swallow her whole already. “He didn’t kidnap me.”</p><p>The woman’s eyebrow raised. “Then what? Please tell me you weren’t dumb enough to follow him around of your own free will.”</p><p>“She’s got a gift, Nightshade. Like the Sight.”</p><p>Nightshade rolled her eyes in another disturbingly elegant gesture. “As God as my witness, if I have to hear you go on about the Sight one more time, I cannot be held responsible for my actions.”</p><p>“Jared would want to see her. We were taking her back to Corvega.”</p><p>“Is that so? Tell me, what Jet-induced hallucination could have possibly convinced you that this tiny, almost adorably helpless woman could do anything other than wriggle in the dirt like a Mole Rat?”</p><p>Olivia was beginning to feel somewhat objectified, but lacked the agency to actually do anything. The Vault suit left annoyingly little to the imagination. She missed her jeans and jackets and ill-fitting hoodies, and those thoughts nagged her even as she lived out what might have been her final earthly moments.</p><p>“She shot a bullet back into Tim’s head.”</p><p>“And who the unfortunate fuck - nevermind, I don’t care who Tim is. He’s obviously dead.” Nightshade’s gaze turned on Olivia again, predatory but now flickering with interest. “And how did you convince this unwashed moron you could do such a thing, little Mole Rat? Come on, now, squeak it out.”</p><p>She again looked to Watcher before looking back up, helpless and hopefully adorable. “I don’t know. He shot at me and missed and then he was dead. That’s all.”</p><p>Nightshade shared a look with Watcher, who growled “Come on, play it up or we’re all dead.”</p><p>“I’m not going to kill you, you big baby.” Nightshade looked down at Watcher in annoyance and gave both him and Olivia a moment to pray their thanks to God. “Though I am very disappointed that you would waste my time with so tantalizing a story, only to have it prove so unsatisfying in its final act.”</p><p>Olivia felt herself scrunch further into the dirt, Mole Rat that she was, as Nightshade turned on her fully. Her mouth went even more dry than it already was and her attempt to swallow nervously only hurt her throat.</p><p>“Unless, of course, you’re the real deal. Did you dodge a bullet, little one? Did fate intervene? I wonder how far this luck of yours takes you. I never believed in the Sight, you see, but something about you has me so very interested and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. If I wasn’t in such a good mood, it might unnerve me, make me want to kill you just to be safe.” If her smile had been unnerving before, it now turned predatory and terrifying. “But it seems you’re lucky in this, too. I am in a very good mood, and that feels lucky to me, at least. Do you feel lucky, pet?”</p><p>Olivia nodded.</p><p>“And what’s your name?”</p><p>“Olivia.”</p><p>Nightshade smirked, fishing in her pocket for something as she did. “How pretty. Alright, Olivia. We already know you’re lucky - for whatever reason, I think I like you, and that makes you a very lucky girl - but when I sit down to play, I like to run the table. Now, are you up for a little game?”</p><p>Another hard swallow and more spines tickled at her throat. “Yes.”</p><p>“Good, I like a girl who’s eager to please.” Her hand pulled something free of her coat pocket at last, something small and shiny. “Here’s a bit of old world history for you. They used to use these as currency. Heavier than a cap, but obviously they weren’t perfect and I find I rather like the weight. On one side is a face, the other is a seal.”</p><p>She held the quarter up for Olivia to see, her heart doing its best to climb up through her throat and get a peek at it between her teeth.</p><p>“Heads or tails? I’ll let you call it in the air. Get it right and maybe I won’t drop you in the Charles.” There was a metal <i>ping</i>, a flash of light, and a tiny yelp as her heart splashed back down to the safety of her stomach. “Go.”</p><p>She watched it arc, eyes wide, unsure of what to say. She couldn’t think straight. Heads - no, tails. What was she thinking? She wasn’t lucky, she didn’t have powers, she wouldn’t find the answer if she just sat here, thinking, praying it came to her.</p><p>So she said nothing as the coin flipped overhead, catching silver moonlight on one face and reflecting burning embers in the other. Heaven or hell, life or death, held in the spinning of a coin worth less than a Nuka Cola.</p><p>As it reached its zenith, seeming to hover just above her head, she finally worked up the breath to shout “No!”</p><p>And then the coin was gone.</p><p>It took a moment for her to realize what had happened. Another metal <i>ping</i> and the rush of dark wings was all that heralded the coin’s final moments as a well-intentioned crow saved poor Olivia’s life.</p><p>No one made a sound. Had the crow dropped the coin, they would have surely heard it hit the ground. Only Olivia’s ragged breathing broke the silence. After a long moment, Watcher began to chuckle. A few of the other Raiders began murmuring and shuffling.</p><p>Nightshade was staring at where the coin had gone, a slow-spreading, horrible grin on her face. When she looked down at Olivia again, her expression was one of pure joy. Olivia felt her breathing begin to slow, her heart skipping a beat as Nightshade crouched down above her prone form.</p><p>“Oh, yes, I think I like you very much. Why don’t you dust yourself off and come with me? Don’t worry, we won’t go far, and unlike this pile of Radstag droppings, I actually keep my promises. You look thirsty. Are you?”</p><p>What was she supposed to do? She nodded, and Nightshade's smile widened.</p><p>“Then when you prove yourself to be as lucky as I think you are, I will have some way to return the favor!” She turned back toward Watcher, snapping “Get him up” before turning back to Olivia and extending a gloved hand. “Come with me. Let’s take you somewhere warm and get to know each other better.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Four-Leaf Clover</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nightshade tests Olivia's luck and finds it to be even better than she imagined</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You Vault Dwellers really do have a refined palette, don’t you?” Nightshade purred as she watched Olivia retch in the corner.</p><p>She had been so thirsty, so desperate for anything to drink, the moment the carton was offered to her, she all but ripped a hole in it and drained half into her mouth before she realized what it was. Putrid, stinking, brownish water, probably dredged from the Charles after someone had relieved themselves upstream.</p><p>“Refined enough to not want sewer water?” she asked, her restraint apparently coming up with the rest of her stomach contents.</p><p>Luckily for her, Nightshade still seemed to be in a good mood. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing. Call it a little joke we play on the new additions. You’re lucky, you know. They’re usually much harsher on new blood and what they do to hostages is something not spoken of in polite company, which I consider you to be, princess.”</p><p>Olivia finished her final gag and looked back at Nightshade, still holding her strange, copper gun in one hand. At least she wasn’t pointing it at her. “What? Polite company or a hostage?”</p><p>“Both.” Nightshade’s smile widened. It was hard to think about her in any sense except as her eventual murderer but outside of that role she might have been pretty, in an intimidating and confident sort of way. “Don’t worry. As I said, I’ve taken a liking to you, and I take care of the things I like. That’s why you’re here with me and not chained up with Watcher and his ilk. You’ve piqued my curiosity. Of course, you are still a hostage, so I will be chaining you up tonight - so you don’t get any bad ideas in that pretty little head of yours - but it will be away from the common rabble. Somewhere safe. I have no shame when it comes to playing favorites. Does that sound like a deal, pet?”</p><p>That was a better deal than any she had been expecting. It took the worst of her panic away, bringing her down to a reasonable nine on a scale of one to five, and let her think clearly as Nightshade handed her something she recognized. Nuka Cola was hardly a substitute for water but she would take rotted teeth over death by dehydration. It might also quiet her growling stomach for a few seconds.</p><p>While she drained the bottle, noticing with appreciation the notes of cherry and mild radiation, Nightshade spoke with one of her cronies at the door. Olivia took the opportunity to take stock of her most recent adventure and wonder if this was to be the rest of her life. She had recognized the building from the outside, at least. Beantown Brewery had been a favorite college hangout of hers, the food trucks outside being far cheaper than the disappointing tours offered inside. It looked about as dilapidated on the inside as she expected, though she supposed some of that could have been due to the recent nuclear war. There were holes in the catwalks, railings that had gone missing, and skeletons that had been piled in a barrel near the back of the room she was currently in, the bare walls and metal shelves of which made it look like a storage closet.</p><p>She tried her best to savor the Nuka Cola but found herself unable to hold back, much to the amusement of Nightshade. “Poor thing. How long has it been since you’ve had anything to slake that thirst of yours?”</p><p>The woman’s habit of languid speech annoyed Olivia both because she lacked the courage to ask where it came from and because the longer she listened to it, the more she found herself enjoying it “I don’t know. Maybe this morning? When I woke up, the Vault was empty. I found a little water but all the food was gone.”</p><p>Nightshade made a noise of sympathy that only furthered Olivia’s confused annoyance. “How very poetic to be kept perfectly safe from everybody outside, only to fall victim to your body’s own needs. I can relate. It makes you desperate, and I suppose otherwise I wouldn’t have found you with someone as disappointingly incompetent as Watcher. But, my lucky girl, now you’re with me, and I have just the thing to tide you over. Come along.”</p><p>Not waiting for her to follow, Nightshade shoved the metal door open and went back out into the main brewery room, its vats extending floor to ceiling in an open space that extended for fifty or more feet on a side. The massive openness of it was exaggerated by the poor lighting, making the darker corners yawn into infinity. Apparently, Nightshade and her goons had not quite worked out to get all the lights on. She hoped that was not what she would be asked to fix. She had never been much for fixing things that ran on electricity, be they toasters, televisions, or temperamental computer terminals.</p><p>She followed Nightshade quickly, tagging along behind just as surely as if she were on a leash. It was humiliating, in a way, being so thoroughly at this woman’s mercy, and having it pointed out at every turn was not her idea of a good time. Not with someone she just met, anyway.</p><p>It seemed her test was meant to take place on the floor of the brewery, and as they descended a set of metal stairs, Nightshade found it convenient to explain exactly what test she had devised for Lucky Olivia. “We’ve been camped out here a long time, as I’m sure you can appreciate. These idiots are good for putting bits of wood together, fixing the catwalks upstairs and the like, but give them anything more complicated than a hammer and a nail and you may as well save yourself the trouble and shoot them in the back before they start.”</p><p>Olivia swallowed hard. It was good to know the policy on mistakes around here. She wondered if there were streaming services in heaven.</p><p>“Tower Tom, the idiot in chief, gave up on this particular riddle a long time ago, but I knew one day we’d find someone clever enough to get inside. This place was a brewery in the old world, but who knows what else they hid around here?” Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Nightshade began leading her across the concrete floor, patting one of the massive vats fondly as she passed. “The first thing I did when I got here was make sure these were up and running. It wasn’t hard, the instructions were plain enough and stored on a system fairly easy to hack, but I suppose one had to read them first and literacy is not one of this particular gang’s strong suits.”</p><p>Olivia continued following in silence, wondering if she could have done the same before she died of thirst. She wouldn’t even know where to begin and this woman made it sound so easy. A nagging thought began to creep in, the first signs of Stockholm Syndrome no doubt, that maybe she was better off staying here. If they really were brewing beer here, the alcohol should take care of a lot of the nasty stuff in the water, or so she vaguely remembered from her college days. If she just stayed on Nightshade’s good side, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.</p><p>This thought was worming its way through her brain at about the same moment that they passed between two of the vats and Olivia got her first look at what awaited her if she stayed. Wrapped in heavy chains that spanned the gap between two steel beams, arms pinned to her sides as tightly as her legs, was a woman with shockingly red hair and what appeared to be a very bad attitude.</p><p>“Ah, our other special guest. Say hello, Lily!”</p><p>Lily did not say hello, and in fact did not look at Olivia at all. She stared right at Nightshade and gave her a look that should have killed.</p><p>“She’s a bit unhappy with her current accommodations. Oh, but don’t worry, princess, you will be treated to something much more comfortable than this. It might not be the lap of luxury, but I assure you, I can make your time here a very pleasant thing, but only if you do the same for me.”</p><p>As Nightshade led her further into the building, Lily spared Olivia a look of pure hatred before she vanished from sight, spurring her into a jog until she caught up with the crazy person who at least had not killed her yet. They made their way across the rest of the room until they came to what Olivia recognized as the loading bay. She had been here once or twice before but nuclear war had not been kind to this place and what remained of the shipping and receiving office looked like a well-used bomb shelter.</p><p>Olivia followed Nightshade through the heavy door, its rusted hinges squealing horribly as she pushed it open, and this time turned to bid Olivia enter. “After you, princess.”</p><p>It was not the worst nickname she’d ever had, and if she steered into this particular skid, she might at least get clean water the next time she was fed. So she nodded, smiling thinly, and walked passed Nightshade into the room.</p><p>“Now, you may be wondering why I’ve brought you here, and I think now is the perfect time to dispense with all the mystery and melodrama. In front of you is a heavy door with a lock, the code for which I assume was lost along with everyone who knew it back when the bombs fell.” Nightshade brushed her way past Olivia, shouldering her to the side in a no-nonsense way that was not entirely necessary and stepping up beside the door in question. “I want what’s on the other side.”</p><p>Olivia found herself staring at the door in disbelief. This? This was her test?</p><p>“But Nightshade, why not just blow the door off its hinges? Or go around outside the building and open up the loading bay doors? You’re so very clever, after all.” Nightshade’s imitation of her voice left Olivia pouting and quietly wondering if it really was that nasally. “Why, yes, princess, I am, and I think you for the kind words, but as you may have noticed I don’t believe in brute force solutions. Deft hands and a soft touch get you so much further, after all. The bay on the far side seems to be near collapse and the last thing I want to do is ask these trigger-happy maniacs to make a hole in the wall because I can only imagine that ending with the entire building in a heap of rubble.”</p><p>Apart from judging her impersonation, Olivia was not really listening. She had walked up to the door, brushing dust off the keypad and hardly daring to believe her luck. “I can do this,” she said quietly. Turning back on Nightshade, she saw the woman had one eyebrow raised and eagerness in her eyes. “I think - I think I know this! I actually know this!”</p><p>Nightshade, for once, seemed lost for words, offering only a throaty chuckle in reply.</p><p>Olivia looked back at the number pad. Twelve mechanical buttons poked from the surface, the numbers and symbols assigned to each one long-since worn away and lost to time. It only now occurred to her that she did not know how long she had been frozen for. She hadn’t thought to ask. Nightshade might know, but she was hesitant to ask anything more of her.</p><p>Instead, she punched in the five digit code she had been given that morning, however long ago that was, when she had picked up yet another innocuous brown package for delivery to Beantown Brewery. The metal pins slid in and clicked in a very satisfying way and, when the fifth one slid back out, she pushed what had once been the pound key.</p><p>Ka-chunk.</p><p>The door didn’t pop open like it was supposed to, but it had unlatched. Olivia grabbed the knob and pulled, successfully moving it about an inch before it ground against the uneven concrete floor.</p><p>“I don’t believe it.” Nightshade’s voice had gone almost reverent, something Olivia hoped was good as she felt a hand descend on her shoulder.</p><p>This time guiding her aside rather than shoving her, the Raider gave the handle one solid tug, dragging the door across the uneven concrete with the strength of an Assaultron. Beyond, Olivia could see rows and rows of shelves, as well as what looked like several parked trucks.</p><p>Nightshade went first, throwing a switch beside the door and waiting as the lights came on, row by row, with a theatrical boom, boom, boom. Her arms, raised as though to welcome whatever was inside the storage room, continued to go up and up until her hands met the back of her head. There she stood, silent, until Olivia got up the courage to enter alongside her.</p><p>When she caught sight of her face, it was the first time it had actually looked human, the cocky smirk replaced by awe, her lips parted even as no air passed between them. Her sea green eyes moved slowly along each shelf, dissecting and cataloging every vacuum-packed, ready-to-eat meal that sat waiting to be enjoyed.</p><p>“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?” Nightshade asked quietly. Olivia said nothing, knowing she was not meant to answer. “We have food. Not just what’s being brought in from Red, I mean we actually have food. There’s - I can’t even begin to guess how much there is in here. And it’s all preserved. This is - it’s unbelievable.”</p><p>As Nightshade began walking slowly toward the shelves, Olivia stayed where she was, eyeing up the rest of the room and getting distracted by the old desk in the corner. Seeing her chaperone so thoroughly entranced, she wandered over, suddenly nostalgic for the middle-aged man who had been so rude to her every time she made a delivery. Heavyset and unable to keep his eyes on her face, she was not exactly sorry to see him go, but she did miss the normalcy that came with being casually harassed. At least back then no one had been pointing guns at her.</p><p>That was when she noticed a bit of leather poking from beneath the desk. He had always been open about carrying a gun to work, at one point showing it off to her while she had been trying to get on with her life. It might still be here. If it was, she might be able to - no, no what was she thinking? This woman was insane. A murderer. A killer.</p><p>But she was desperate, and so she reached down beneath the desk, looking over her shoulder to make sure Nightshade was still distracted. The Raider had worked her way toward the trucks, which Olivia now recognized as the old food trucks they had parked outside during the days. They had always said those were independently owned. No wonder it had all tasted the same.</p><p>The gun was still there, a pistol that felt heavy in her grip as she pulled it from the holster. It came out with barely a whisper even as her hands shook so badly she threatened to drop it on the floor. It looked like it was still loaded. The clip was in it and she was pretty sure she knew how to hold it, even if she had only ever seen it done in movies.</p><p>She took a second, closing her eyes to steel herself. She had to be quiet, careful, and perfect. Ever so slowly, she turned, careful that her feet made no sound as she rounded on the woman who held her leash.</p><p>And found she was staring right into her eyes.</p><p>Nightshade was not pointing her strange gun at her, the one that had put the metal dart in Hot Rod’s back. It hung from her shoulder by a leather strap, its barrel pointed at the concrete floor. And she was smiling, something that made her hands shake even more.</p><p>“I see your luck hasn’t left you just yet.” The words were slow and quiet and punctuated by the raising of her hands toward Olivia in surrender. “There’s no need for the gun. I’d ask you to put it down, if only because if you do shoot me, my friends upstairs will come down here and find you and will show you far less kindness than I have. And, of course, I do so enjoy being alive.”</p><p>Seeing her standing there, strange pipe gun hanging in easy reach, she had to admit that she could have killed her at any point. She could have hurt her or done things to the Raiders that had found her outside the Vault but she hadn’t. Whatever Nightshade was, she wasn’t a sadist. She wasn’t as bad as someone like Hot Rod.</p><p>Slowly, hands still shaking, Olivia forced herself to lower the gun.</p><p>“Thank you.” There was another metal clunk as Nightshade placed her own rifle on the ground, a little smirk on her lips as she did. “Just so you know I’m being honest. Something tells me that, even if I did want to hurt you, one of these shelves would fall on me or my lovely Syringer would explode in my face. Hasn’t happened before, but I don’t think you follow the same rules that the rest of us do. I don’t have any other guns. I have a lot of knives, but I hope you’ll take my word I’ve no desire to use them. Can I come closer?”</p><p>What could she do but nod? As Nightshade crossed the short distance between them, Olivia looked up at her, miserable and wanting nothing more than to just lie down. “Why? Why are you doing this?”</p><p>“Doing what, princess?”</p><p>“This. Talking. Not killing me. Being… nice, I guess.”</p><p>Nightshade chuckled. “Wondering why I’m not a bloodthirsty savage? That’s a very hurtful stereotype, Olivia. But to be perfectly honest, it’s because I was lucky. I had someone in my life who taught me how to survive out here in ways that have always worked for me. You see, sweet thing, the ones who survive out here aren’t the strongest or the most brutal - you’ll never be stronger or more brutal than a Deathclaw - they’re the smartest, the craftiest. Or maybe the luckiest, hm? I’ve seen a lot of horrible things out here. A lot of us are monsters, you know, putting heads on sticks and keeping bodies around for decoration. It’s savage and inhuman and the same thing always happens - something more savage and even less human eventually comes by and does away with them.”</p><p>Olivia felt herself begin to panic at the thought of running into someone like that. She could have been found by one of them outside the Vault. Her imagination, always eager to run screaming into the dark, was off like a shot and howling about being disemboweled and hung from the ceiling.</p><p>“The ones here,” Nightshade continued, leaning forward to catch Olivia’s eyes and draw her back to the moment. She had offered something to Olivia that she took without really thinking, realizing a moment later it was a water bottle. When had she picked that up? “Are a little unhinged, Tom being the most unpredictable, but he is coming around to my way of thinking. And if he doesn’t, well, his underlings are already well-aware of how I treat my friends, and what happens to my enemies.”</p><p>She held out a hand expectantly and Olivia, having never fired a gun in her life, handed the weapon over. Nightshade hefted it, her hands so easily moving to eject the clip, fingers snapping at little switches on the side of the gun she hadn’t even known were there. She examined it, turning it over in her hands appreciatively before tucking it beneath her jacket.</p><p>“Speaking of friends, you are now the first person who has ever pulled a gun on me and lived. It’s a very exclusive club, one that I assume will only ever have two members; the person who one day kills me, and you.” Her eyes fell on Olivia’s, shining with mirth. “Let’s keep that our little secret. I’ve a reputation, you know. I can’t have people knowing I went soft for a Vault Dweller that did a few magic tricks.”</p><p>Olivia found herself smiling as she tried, hand over fist to reel her imagination back from the brink. Nightshade could have killed her a dozen times over. She unscrewed the cap of the water and took a long drink, finding with relief that drinking an enormous amount of water was a great way to avoid breaking down and crying.</p><p>“I saw some steak dinners on the shelf, you know. Help yourself. Tom won’t miss it and I know you’ve earned it.”</p><p>“Thank you.” Olivia peered over her shoulder and Nightshade gestured toward a familiar-looking stack of reddish cartons.</p><p>The packed meat was, of course, ready to eat as soon as you opened the box, and however long they had been sitting on these shelves, the meat tasted as fresh as the day it was made. She tucked in, forgetting for a moment even to breathe between bites, and inhaled most of the steak, potatoes, and green beans before noticing Nightshade staring at her.</p><p>Still not carrying her Syringer gun, she instead handed over another Nuka Cola before speaking. “You were saying you came from a Vault and that when you woke up, everyone was dead. Is that true? I wouldn’t blame you if you lied.”</p><p>Olivia twisted the cap off the bottle and indulged in a long drink. She almost felt human again. “It’s true. There were just skeletons left. No food or anything. The only thing left was a roach that I thought was going to kill me.”</p><p>“Did you befriend a Radroach, too?” Nightshade asked with a surprised laugh. “You really are something, aren’t you? Well then, I’m going to give you some advice, and I hope that with a full stomach and an appreciation for how much I enjoy your company you will listen to it.”</p><p>She knelt in front of Olivia, who had seated herself with her back against one of the metal shelves. Olivia swallowed again, the familiar tightness in her throat returning. “What is it?”</p><p>“You need somewhere to go. Somewhere safe. As I said, you survive out here by being smarter than the average Raider, but you also need intuition, experience, and a certain willingness to cut someone’s throat, which I don’t think you have. No offense.” The smile she gave her was more genuine than should have been possible. “The way I see it, there are two places you can go. The first is Diamond City. There’s running water, electricity, all the comforts of home, and plenty of guys with guns and bats to keep the mutants out. I was kicked out of there when I was younger for things best left to the imagination, but I think you would fit right in.”</p><p>Olivia nodded slowly. “Diamond City. How far is it?”</p><p>“Not far. A day’s walk, maybe, if you’re being careful - and you will need to be careful. I could walk you there myself, if you trust me. Might be nice to see the wall again.” Now she leaned in closer, holding Olivia’s gaze with an intensity she was not expecting. “The other option, and again I urge you to take this very seriously, is to stay right here.”</p><p>That tightness in her throat now grew sharp spines. “Here?”</p><p>“Yes, here, in all its dilapidated glory. We’ve got fairly clean water - apologies for what I gave you earlier - not to mention thick walls and a handful of doors with plenty of fools to watch them. All we lacked for until now was food, and you’ve just done away with that problem within an hour of walking through the door.” Nightshade knelt down in front of her, eyes fixed with hers in a way that pushed Olivia’s back further against the metal shelving, the food in her lap momentarily forgotten. “I learned a long time ago to trust my gut, to listen to that little voice in my head that was telling me something was off. Right now, it’s telling me that you don’t just have good luck, you are good luck, and that everything every Raider gang has done in the last ten years is about to come crumbling down at just the echo of your footsteps. It’s a little intimidating, which I don’t normally appreciate but I find I like this particular feeling.”</p><p>Olivia would not have known what to say even if she could have spoken. No one had ever told her she was lucky even when it came to playing cards or rolling dice. She had always been just average. She had never won radio contests, had gotten to the beach only to have it storm five minutes later, had left her student badge in her dorm room when she was running late for an exam, and a thousand other things that everyone just shrugged off as unlucky. It didn’t make sense.</p><p>She tried to say as much, but being pinned to a metal shelf by the most terrifying woman she’d ever met did nothing for her eloquence. “I don’t get it. I didn’t do anything. I opened a door and - and a bird stole your quarter.”</p><p>“And that is why you should stay right here with me, a little four-leaf clover to tuck in my pocket and keep safe from all the bad things out there. Trust me when I say I have good instincts and have been surviving this Wasteland for a good deal longer than most. I’ve survived the incompetent Raider bosses, Deathclaw attacks, and Super Mutant raids that killed everyone I’ve known for the fourteen years I’ve been on my own. It makes a girl hard, but it also gives her a sixth sense for danger, which right now is going absolutely crazy over you.”</p><p>Rather than picking apart the names of monsters that had racked up such a terrifying body count, Olivia busied herself trying to do the math over how old Nightshade looked and how long she had been out here alone. It was not the best use of her time but her mind was not at its best. She blamed her sluggish mind on the red meat and waited patiently for the Nuka Cola to kick in and wake her up while Nightshade got even closer.</p><p>“I want you to stay with me, Olivia. I’ll keep you safe, let you work your magic and find bottle caps in the floorboards, and the two of us can make this ruined world our playground.” Nightshade’s gaze tried to drive Olivia even further into the floor. She couldn’t even look away, the woman was looming over her so closely. “What do you think, princess? Want to give a bit of weight to this name I’ve made for you?”</p><p>Olivia found her tongue knotted up behind her teeth, and on the other side of them was all the breath she might have used to answer. Like a Mole Rat, whatever that was, all she could do was wiggle against the floor and wait until her mind returned from doing simple math.</p><p>Instead, a man’s voice interrupted. “Nightshade.”</p><p>It was not a pleasant tone. Nightshade visibly jumped, which for her was just a twitch of her eyes and the slightest hint of a frown that vanished as soon as it appeared. She turned her head to regard the man standing in the door and almost sounded unsurprised when she answered. “Tom.”</p><p>“Never thought I’d be getting the drop on you,” Tom said, taking slow steps into the massive room, brandishing what Olivia was beginning to recognize as a gun made out of pipes and copper wire. “And what’s this? You let a Vault girl disarm you? You’re getting sloppy.”</p><p>“She’s a hostage,” Nightshade replied, standing and folding her arms over her chest. “And while I know I’m easy on the eyes, you may want to look around at the endless supply of food this Vault girl has dropped at our feet.”</p><p>“I don’t give a shit about the food,” Tom spat, taking neither his eyes nor his gun off Nightshade. “I’ve got Lily for that. Red’s sending us more food than we can eat and it ain’t stopping anytime soon, so long as I’ve got that bitch chained to the floor. Which is where your little friend will be going once we’re done here. Might be able to sell her to a caravan or something, maybe those slavers out of Nuka World.”</p><p>Olivia felt herself begin to shake as Nightshade hesitated. “I wouldn’t recommend that.”</p><p>“What? You want this one for yourself?”</p><p>“Yes.” Had Olivia been in a more reasonable state of mind, she might have wondered at her sudden acceptance of being Nightshade’s property. She had never considered herself a cheap date but here she was ready to surrender her free will after a single, room-temperature Salisbury steak. “I brought her in, along with the other hostages. They’re mine to trade away as I please. And this one is mine.”</p><p>“Funny, I didn’t hear you saying anything when you were eating the food Red sent over, food she wouldn’t have sent if I didn’t take her sister.”</p><p>Nightshade’s lip curled. “Are you down here for a reason?”</p><p>“I came to see what was taking you so long.” Tom took another few steps forward, eyes flicking to Olivia in a way she very much disliked. “But now I find you unarmed and alone, none of your friends around to help you. Maybe I found you down here after the Vault girl killed you. I know what you’ve been doing behind my back and I won’t have a mutiny on my hands. These are my men and I won’t have you turning them on me.”</p><p>Nightshade looked down at the gun, blinking slowly as her eyes flicked back up to Tom’s. She didn’t even look scared. In fact, she looked furious. “I’m in a good mood today, Tom. I’ll give you a chance to drop that gun and get out with your life. You won’t get another, and you know what happens to people who point guns at me.”</p><p>Tom nodded toward her Syringer, still lying where she had put it down. Nightshade had only dropped it to make her comfortable. This was all her fault. “Yeah, but usually you’ve got that on you. Think you can get to it before I put a dozen holes in you? Think you’re that lucky?”</p><p>Nightshade’s grin was pure murder. “Oh, you picked the wrong day to ask me that.”</p><p>Two shots rang out, so loud that Olivia instinctively put her hands to her ears. She jumped so badly that the food in her lap went flying to the floor, her eyes closing on their own as her body tried to shut it all away. She forced them open a second later to find Nightshade crouched in front of her, body twisted like she was going to dive for the Syringer only she was holding perfectly still.</p><p>Across the room, Tom was lying flat on his back, unmoving.</p><p>Rising slowly, languidly, every muscle in her body as perfectly honed as a mountain lion’s, Nightshade turned to regard Tom’s body with a sneer. “I told you, I don’t like it when people point guns at me. It makes me nervous.”</p><p>Olivia was still shaking when Nightshade turned to her, her expression changing to one of amusement. “Well, looks like that luck of yours is contagious.” She pulled her hand from beneath her coat, revealing the pistol Olivia had taken earlier. “Full clip, shoots like it was cleaned and sighted just this morning, and it’s one you pull out from under a desk that hasn’t been used since before the war. If it hadn’t just happened to me, I’d have called bullshit for certain.”</p><p>“What -” Her body was still trembling but with a great deal of effort she was managing to at least keep her voice level. She hated to think that she was getting used to the sight of death after only a day. “He was - He wanted to sell me. Oh my God. Thank you.”</p><p>“Oh, the pleasure was all mine, sweet thing.” Nightshade sauntered over to where Olivia still sat against the shelves and reached down, grabbing her beneath the arm and hauling her to her feet as though she were light as a feather. “But this isn’t exactly what I had in mind for my evening. His friends will have heard that, you see, and my friends will hear his friends. I’d plug those ears of yours, princess. Things are about to get very loud.”</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Turf War</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nightshade tries to get Olivia out of the brewery alive, only to have her make a series of very poor decisions. Piper makes her own poor decisions and finds herself in an uncomfortably familiar situation.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I thought you said he was coming around to your way of thinking!” Every word was screamed at the top of her lungs and Olivia still wasn’t sure if Nightshade could hear her.</p><p>Nightshade, determined to make the room a little quieter, almost lazily loaded a metal dart into her Syringer before, in a blur of motion Olivia could barely track, popping around the corner and immediately throwing herself back. It was only when she began loading another dart that Olivia realized she had actually shot someone.</p><p>And it wasn’t until someone up on the catwalks began to scream that she realized what that meant. If things hadn’t been so mind-shatteringly loud, Olivia would have asked what those screams meant. She might also have just run for her life if the concrete floor all around her wasn’t being ripped up by the surrounding hailstorm.</p><p>“Yes, coming, which is meant to imply his underdeveloped brain hadn’t quite made it all the way just yet.” Nightshade turned to her, smiling like they were two students sitting on the university lawn despite the bullets that cracked and snapped all around them. “Though it seems your luck may be running out. I don’t see many of my people up there and the way Tom was carrying on doesn’t exactly make me feel hopeful. Poor dumb bastards.”</p><p>As Nightshade again popped around the corner and fired off another dart, Olivia scrunched up tighter against the wall and wondered if her eulogy would have more than three words. From where they crouched, they seemed safe from the instant death pouring down from the catwalks up above but they were also hopelessly stuck. Part of her wanted to bolt for the back room with all the food and lock the door but she seemed alone in that desire and Nightshade’s opinion carried a bit more weight. Specifically, Olivia’s weight, considering Nightshade seemed able to pick her up with one arm.</p><p>More screams echoed from the catwalks. Someone shouted “Get off me! Wait, no!” and the sound of something heavy hitting the brewery floor cut off whatever else he meant to say. Olivia was glad she could not see it.</p><p>Nightshade, however, was giddy. “Chemistry is such a fascinating science, isn’t it? When it comes down to it, we’re all so fragile on the inside.”</p><p>Feeling particularly fragile on the outside, Olivia peeped over her knees at what she thought was the old front offices. A heavy metal door still stood against the wall with a sign she couldn’t read from here, but she was certain that was the fastest way out. “Shouldn’t we get out of here?”</p><p>With her Assaultron grip, Nightshade caught Olivia beneath her shoulder, pulling her up to her feet and a few inches further, sending Olivia reeling as she stumbled back to earth. “That’s the plan. You know, I’m honestly beginning to wonder if your good luck is balanced out by incredibly violent misfortune on all those around you. I had twenty eager fighters in this place, about the same as Tom. From the looks of things, most of mine are dead and Tom’s are about to join them.”</p><p>“Couldn’t we go back into the bay? You know, with all the food and the no one shooting at us?”</p><p>“Don’t tempt me, sweetness,” Nightshade growled as she popped around the corner a third time and did something horrible to one of the raiders on the catwalks. “But as I said, one errant explosion and I think that entire room will come down around our ears, and though I have every confidence you will walk away happy as can be, I am not so eager to test my own luck.”</p><p>“Well, you might feel good about my odds but I’ve never been shot at before and I really don’t like it! If I really was lucky, I wouldn’t even be here. I’d have woken up at home, or -”</p><p>“If you really want to feel sorry for yourself, I can give you something to feel miserable about,” Nightshade interrupted, her tone more intimidating than the gunfire and more than enough to shut Olivia’s mouth. “Now, why don’t you and I go for a little walk? As much as I love the little present you got me, I don’t know if we can carry all that food with us, and I’m no longer feeling very welcome here.”</p><p>She did not wait for Olivia to answer. Dragged over the ground like a ragdoll, Olivia bounced along behind her, yelping in surprise and terror as bullets chewed up the concrete all around them. Nightshade had her head low and was running at an impossibly fast pace across the open ground, furthering her belief that the woman was at least half mountain lion, and it was all she could do to keep her legs spinning beneath her like a cartoon character. If she was screaming, she couldn’t hear it. All her body’s attention was devoted to keeping herself bouncing toward the exit.</p><p>It wasn’t enough. Not even halfway to the door, just like her senior prom, Oliva’s foot caught an uneven bit of ground and she went flat on her face. Just like she had back then, she cursed and rolled pitifully on the ground, wishing something would just hurry up and kill her. However, unlike her senior prom, there were plenty of people here trying to do just that, and her animalistic desire to survive forced her miserably tired self out of the driver seat and sent her half-running, half-scuttling back to cover.</p><p>Somehow, she made it back to the side of the room with no additional air holes in her aching body. Maybe Nightshade was right. Maybe she was lucky. How else could she explain everything else that had happened?</p><p>“Oh, what the fuck?!” Nightshade called from across the brewery. She now stood, arms wide, glaring at Olivia from what couldn’t have been more than thirty bullet-swept feet away.</p><p>“I tripped!” she answered pathetically.</p><p>And got the reply she expected. “No shit!”</p><p>More bullets pinged off the metal next to her, driving her back to the ground. “I’ll - uh - I’ll come over! Just give me a second!”</p><p>Maybe she could wait until they ran out of ammo. She had played video games like this. If it was too hard, cheese the game. Make them come to you, fight them one at a time, and hope they had really bad pathfinding or something.</p><p>Another puff of compressed air led to another scream and another body falling from the catwalks. Bad pathfinding might not have been a problem here, but Nightshade certainly was. Seeing the absolute havoc she was creating, and how invincible she looked even as she cursed the cowering idiot she was trying to help, Olivia felt a sudden surge of relief that she had not caught her on a bad day.</p><p>“Well, hurry up! Lily might get here first at this rate.”</p><p>Lily! She had forgotten about the girl chained to the floor just on the other side of her shelter. With a careful peek around the corner, Olivia caught sight of the poor girl, somehow still alive amidst all the gunfire despite being unable to move. The girl’s eyes were wide as saucers and, in the brief moment Olivia was exposed, those eyes found hers, and a very bad idea formed in her pretty little head.</p><p>“Where’s the key?”</p><p>Nightshade stopped loading a dart to look up and arch one elegant eyebrow at her. “I beg your pardon?”</p><p>“The key! We can’t just leave her!”</p><p>“Give me five seconds and I’ll prove you wrong! If you’re so damned worried about her, I’ve a spare dart I could use to make it quick and painless.”</p><p>Lily apparently heard the idea and began rattling her chains frantically. Olivia couldn’t see what she was doing, having pulled her head off the indoor firing range, but she doubted it was having much effect. “Just tell me where it is!”</p><p>Nightshade, making eye contact with her all the while, shoved the dart into the Syringer and aimed it toward Lily. Olivia shouted but it was not as though she could do anything. Lily continued to struggle on the other side of the brewing vats. “Don’t!”</p><p>From across the floor, she could see Nightshade’s finger on the trigger and watched, helpless, as it curled, uncurled, moved with her grip as she adjusted the gun on her shoulder. But she didn’t fire.</p><p>Instead, she rolled back behind her shelter, gave Olivia a glare that should have killed, and snarled “Fuck! It’s on Tom’s body! Now hurry up and get back here before I decide to use one of these shots on you!”</p><p>She did not need to be told twice. Scrambling over the ground, Olivia managed to cross the ten feet to the receiving office without falling down, passing out of view of Nightshade before going face-first into a metal shelf because she was too busy looking at her feet. Stars swam across her vision as she staggered sideways, one hand over her forehead, the other groping for something to hold as she searched for Tom’s body.</p><p>Eventually, she found it not through sight but by step, nearly tripping over it as she rushed frantically around the office. Vision still blurred, she knelt beside him, groaning as she put her knee in something slick and sticky. She must have knocked something off the shelves when she ran into them. It took a few moments of patting around the dead man’s belt, something that she was determined not to think about ever again, before her hands found a ring of keys and managed to pull them free.</p><p>As she stood, her vision cleared just enough to see the pool of red now spreading from under him, red that now clung to her leg and her hands. Blood. So much blood.</p><p>She felt her head go light, her body threatening to shut down even though fainting here would be where her story ended. Wrenching herself from the body, she turned towards the door, staggering forward, this time anticipating her imminent collision with a solid object and catching herself on the far wall.</p><p>The Salisbury steak trying to return from whence it came needed a few moments of attention, allowing Olivia to catch her breath as she listened to Nightshade curse. However long she had been asleep, the world had seemed to have become more inventive with its invectives, although that could have just been the woman stringing them together. If nothing else, she was creative, and Olivia had always liked the artsy types.</p><p>Before she could think too much more on that unhealthy point, she forced herself to run back out into the main room and back to her old hiding place. Nightshade was still cursing but had a truly terrifying smile on her face as she took aim at another unfortunate raider high above.</p><p>“Drop your guns, you disappointing half-feral ingrates! This whole business is getting old, and unless you cross-eyed inbred ghoul fuckers start shooting straight, your last moments will be spent watching your friends tear each other limb from limb!”</p><p>No one stopped, but they also did not start shooting straight, so Olivia decided it would be best to get to Lily before she was forced to see something indescribably awful.</p><p>She had already darted from cover and made it to the brewing vats before she realized what she was doing. Even that short run should have killed her, but either by virtue of her luck or Nightshade’s attention-grabbing personality, the raiders seemed to be ignoring her.</p><p>The woman chained to the floor was wrapped like a metal burrito and was looking wide-eyed at Olivia as she approached. “It’s okay! I’m here!”</p><p>It took her only a few moments to find the padlocks by her arms and legs. There were three of them, and only after the woman was throwing off her restraints did Olivia wonder what she might be releasing that had required so many heavy bonds.</p><p>Too late now. Olivia helped Lily unwrap herself before hiding against a brewing vat. “Are you okay?”</p><p>Lily, stark-red hair hanging loose around her eyes, pushed her way up beside her. “Don’t know who the fuck you are, but I ain’t about to forget what you just did for me. Where’s Tom?”</p><p>“Dead.”</p><p>In a pattern Olivia was beginning to notice in the friends she made, the woman let out a psychotic laugh. “Ah, good. You’re a fucking miracle worker, Vault Dweller!”</p><p>Whatever else she was going to say was cut off by an ungodly roar from above. Fire and chips of concrete burst up from the floor as someone up above unlimbered what looked like a vertibird’s minigun and began filling the room with powdered stone. The corner where Nightshade had been hiding exploded in sparks and dust, bringing an end to the woman’s tirade.</p><p>Olivia actually felt herself panic. “Nightshade!”</p><p>Lily snorted. “Don’t feel too bad. She was a bitch, anyway. But, looks like you’re with me, now, Vault Dweller. I know a way out, come on!”</p><p>Grabbing her by the wrist, Lily dragged Olivia beneath the brewing vat’s support beams and along the far wall before slipping out an emergency exit. If any alarms went off, she did not hear them over the noise as the raider on the catwalks unleashed pure hate on the floor below. She looked back as she was dragged away, afraid to call out but still looking for any sign of the woman she had already come to think of as invincible. There was none, and Olivia let herself be dragged back out into the night.</p><p> </p><p>The Federal Ration Stockpile was, at first glance, a total bust. Empty shelves and collapsed walls told any curious scavenger lucky enough to get this far that there was nothing left to take. There were even empty tin cans left on some of the shelves. All told, it was a very convincing setup.</p><p>But Piper was no scavenger, and where someone sought to weave a web of lies, she would be there to burn it away and expose the ugly truth.</p><p>These were the sorts of stories she lived for. She had, on many occasions, considered hanging up her hat and replacing it with eyeglasses and a pen tucked behind one ear. There was as much demand for stories in the new world as there had been in the old, and between her sister’s budding artistic talent and her own ability to turn a phrase, they could have done well for themselves in Diamond City. They might have even been able to move to the Upper Stands. There would be no more creeping through the dark, hoping that scratching sound was the piping and not a mirelurk or radscorpion.</p><p>But there would also be no impact, no truth set free, no people emancipated by their own indignant fury. Making enemies was a part of the job, but so was making sure those enemies could comfortably curse her name over a good dinner and under a safe roof.</p><p>Making no more sound than a mole rat, Piper creeped through the half-collapsed tunnel that she suspected would lead her to the back of the stockpile. She hadn’t seen many raiders yet. There were a few in the hills surrounding the stockpile but nowhere near the numbers she had been expecting. She had spent half the trip concocting aliases and cover stories with which to infiltrate the gang and the thought of not getting to use them was actually a bit disappointing.</p><p>At the end of the tunnel, Piper began to notice brick and mortar construction, along with large metal pipes and dim emergency lights that still hummed quietly in the gloom. Surely she was getting close.</p><p>She could also hear voices. A woman’s voice, one she recognized, was shouting over all the others and it did not sound happy. That would be Red, the raider queen responsible for this kingdom of foodstuffs. Red carried a reputation for intelligence rather than brutality, something that stood out in the Wasteland, and attracted recruits eager to join a more professional outfit than the others slumming it around the old city. She had taken the stockpile months, if not years ago, now, and had been living the good life ever since.</p><p>Piper crouched down in the dirt and scooted to the nearest corner, around which Red’s voice was carrying very well.</p><p>“I don’t want excuses, I want answers! That son of a bitch has my sister!”</p><p>Her ears perked up at that. Two sentences in and she already had something to push on if this came to negotiations. Diamond City rescues her sister, Diamond City gets food.</p><p>“Red, we’ve heard back from the spies and it isn’t good,” a man was saying before he was cut off.</p><p>“No shit! This is why I’m in charge. We’re getting her back and we’re doing it without trading half our stock to do it. That bastard won’t get away with this. How many have made it into the brewery? Can they spring her without being noticed, bring her back to us? We can launch a raid, draw their attention away.”</p><p>It did not take a seasoned snoop to hear the desperation in Red’s voice. Piper could sympathize with her. If someone took Nat, she would do anything to get her back. Which actually sort of undercut Red’s entire argument over not paying the ransom, but getting revenge would certainly be on Piper’s mind.</p><p>“If we launch a raid, they’ll just kill her.”</p><p>“Then help me think of an idea! I won’t let her stay there for a moment longer than I have to.”</p><p>Piper carefully peered around the corner, seeing nothing but more empty tunnel ahead. They must have been just around the next bend. Carefully, she picked herself up and started tiptoeing over pieces of broken masonry, following the exposed wires and hissing pipes toward the angry woman.</p><p>The same man was still arguing with her when Piper reached the end. “Why not just pay the ransom?”</p><p>“Do I need to remind you that he took my sister? I won’t give that bastard anything! Nothing! Not after this!”</p><p>“But if we send him the food, he might turn her over. Then we can light the place up without worrying about killing Lily.”</p><p>“I - that actually isn’t bad.” Red paused and Piper heard footsteps against wooden planks coming from around the corner. “That isn’t bad at all. Alright, we can make that work. Help me take stock, let’s see how this could work.”</p><p>More footsteps. Piper scurried forward, coming to a fork in the path. The voices were to her right, so she went left.</p><p>“How did Lily get caught? She’s smarter than this. I still don’t understand it.”</p><p>“It was that woman with the dart gun. Nightshade, I think.”</p><p>Red swore. “Of course it was. Should have joined up with us when she had the chance. We could have used her.”</p><p>Piper kept running, scampering over broken walls, looking for a place to hide while the voices behind her grew louder. There was hardly any time to go quietly and even less to look for raiders. She should have just gone in the front, gotten their attention, and lied her way through. She was better at lying than she was at sneaking.</p><p>“Doesn’t matter now,” Red continued, coming closer every second. “If I ever see her again, I’ll kill her myself.”</p><p>The man walking with her laughed quietly. “I’d love to see that.”</p><p>“You don’t think I can?”</p><p>“Woman’s crazy, Red, ask anyone. Half the Commonwealth is scared to death of her. You know she killed a deathclaw?”</p><p>“I know, I know. God, I’ve heard that stupid deathclaw story a thousand times. It’s obviously bullshit.”</p><p>Piper turned a corner and stopped dead. In front of her was the stockpile, and there was more food than she could have eaten in a hundred lifetimes. Rows and rows of metal shelves boasting steaks, water, vegetables, and things she had never seen in the world outside. It was beautiful.</p><p>It was also on the other side of a heavy metal door, beside which was a terminal and a very bored-looking raider.</p><p>The two met eyes. Piper smiled. “Hey.”</p><p>The raider blinked dumbly. “Uh. Hey.”</p><p>“I’m new. Just got here.”</p><p>“Oh!” The man straightened up a little and smiled. “Welcome aboard, I guess. Where are you from?”</p><p>“Diamond City. Listen, think you can give me the tour? Someone asked me to -”</p><p>She didn’t even have a chance to finish the lie. She felt cold metal press against her head as Red’s voice now came from very, very close behind her.</p><p>“Well, well, well. Looks like we’ve got a spy of our own.”</p><p>Piper’s eyes went wide. “Wait, no, I’m -”</p><p>Someone grabbed her by the arms, pinning them painfully against her back and shoving her into one of the walls. Her face pressed against the stone, she got her first look at Red as the woman stepped up beside her.</p><p>And knew, in an instant, that she was about to have her journalistic integrity validated with yet another death threat. “Not what? Tell me who you are and maybe I’ll make it quick.”</p><p>“Kara. I’m from Diamond City. I came here to join up.”</p><p>“Bullshit.” Red reached up, grabbing her by the chin and pointing a revolver at her chest. “You’re one of Tom’s people, aren’t you? Well, you’re in luck. Normally I’d just shoot you in the knees and let the behemoth have its fun, but your boss has something I want. You’re gonna help me get it.”</p><p>Piper felt herself pulled away from the wall, the man behind her nearly lifting her off the ground as he moved her. “Hey, watch it!”</p><p>“Loud one, aren’t you? We can take care of that. Let’s go find somewhere for you to get comfortable. Wouldn’t want you going anywhere on us, now would we?” Red began walking back the way she had come, the big brute dragging Piper right behind.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Two Lies and a Truth</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Piper tries to talk her way out of her predicament, only to have a Vault Dweller show up and steal the show</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Piper sat, back pressed against the wooden beam, quiet only because some enterprising soul had thought to shove her scarf in her mouth. Thick chains wrapped around her waist and arms, pinning her tightly to the support with her hands behind her back. For good measure, they had also chained her ankles together, apparently worried that she might rip the whole foundation apart and just make a run for home.</p><p>The raider camp was not what she had expected, and had she the use of her tongue, she might have asked why they had chosen to live like mole rats rather than take advantage of the comforts the stockpile provided. Everything in the stockpile was intact, giving the place an almost dreamlike quality. Inside the walls were smooth floors, air filters that still worked, and plenty of room to make a comfortable living space. Outside were dirt floor sand ramshackle huts of rotted wood, atop which Piper was currently luxuriating.</p><p>At least she didn’t lack for company. The raiders seemed ecstatic to have someone new to torment, and though no one had broken out the hot pokers or tried to smash her fingers, they were certainly eager to get started. She was actually glad they had bound her legs; it kept them from visibly shaking.</p><p>
  <i>Okay, Piper, you’ve been in worse spots than this. Remember the Super Mutants? Just be calm and talk your way out like you always do.</i>
</p><p>No sooner had she begun thinking of ways to spin her helplessness than Red herself appeared to give her the chance she wanted. Red hair swept to the side, body covered in the cage-like metal armor that so many raiders seemed to favor, she tromped up the stairs with her heavy combat boots and stood over Piper with a very unpleasant smirk.</p><p>The way those dark eyes picked over her reminded her far too much of the Super Mutant incident. “Now, if I take that out of your mouth, are you going to do anything stupid?”</p><p>Piper shook her head. If she could have screamed loud enough to get help, the sheer volume of it would probably finish what the bombs had started all those years ago.</p><p>Red knelt down in front of her and obligingly, if unkindly, pulled the wadded-up scarf from her mouth, giving her a chance to work her aching jaw. “Thank you.”</p><p>“Manners. Interesting.” Red’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t act like one of Tom’s soldiers. Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing down here? If you’re not with him, I might go easy on you.”</p><p>That was hardly a lie worth believing. Piper took a moment to gather her thoughts, disguising the pause with a few more movements of her aching jaw. This would require a great deal of finesse and even more luck. All she had to go on were two names and a lot of anger.</p><p>“Alright. I was with Tom. I joined up out of Diamond City. Got bored hiding behind the wall and wanted to do something more fun. I didn’t want to spend my whole life hiding from wild dogs and ghouls like a coward.”</p><p>Red’s face was hard to read but there was a flicker of something like amusement on her face as Piper spun her lie. “You sure fucked that up. That kind of talk is Brotherhood shit.”</p><p>“In case you hadn’t noticed, they aren’t exactly big around here.”</p><p>The comment prompted a slight chuckle from Red. “So you went with the next best thing, is that it? The first raider gang you came across and you sold yourself out for whatever caps they had on hand? Or did you mean to find the drunkest, hungriest group of idiots out there?”</p><p>It wasn’t a bite, but Piper could feel her nibbling at the bait, and that was better than getting shot in the knees. “It was an accident. I’d rather not go into the details but suffice to say I thought they were more impressive than they were. Then Tom brought in someone from a raid. Didn’t know who she was until he started bragging about it.”</p><p>Red leaned closer, taking the bait at last but pulling at it hard enough to yank Piper into the water with her. “Was she alright? If you hurt her -”</p><p>“I didn’t touch her! I swear! Tom wanted her alive.” Piper breathed a small sigh of relief as Red pulled away, lips still curled in a murderous snarl but at least hovering a little further away. “I guess he wanted your food.”</p><p>“And you?” Red asked. “Where do you come into this whole mess?”</p><p>“He wanted people to come spy on you, see when you’d be making a move to get her back. I was supposed to report back with how you were going to attack, what time, where you would come from, a million other things he isn’t paying me enough for.”</p><p>That admission, brought up seemingly by accident, false fury mixing with real fear to create the illusion of a woman at the end of her rope, caught Red’s attention. The curl of her lip now turned appreciative. “That’s what I like to hear. Keep that up and you’ll talk your way right out of those chains.”</p><p>Piper, survivor of Super Mutants kidnappings and a bonafide Child of Atom, allowed herself a small smile. This was why she should have gone in the front door. Always play to your strengths. Getting impatient, sneaking into places where you didn’t know the layout, being just generally a noisy person, all of these things were just ways to get in trouble.</p><p>“What about Nightshade? Did you see her while you were there?”</p><p>Judging by the name, Piper could guess that the meeting between them would have been short and tragic for the budding reporter. “I saw her around. Stayed away for the most part.”</p><p>“But she was there, in the brewery?”</p><p>Piper nodded. “In and out every day or two.”</p><p>“Alright. You’ve got some sense, at least.” Red tilted her head, looking down at Piper with a gleam in her eye. “I think I could find a good use for you. Tom wants to know when we’re coming? You’ll tell him. Give him all the information he needs. We’ll feed him exactly what he wants to hear, draw him into a trap, and -”</p><p>“Red! Red, you have to come see this!” someone shouted down the corridor, voice echoing oddly in the cavern.</p><p>“Alright, I’m on my way.” Red, still smiling, reached down toward the chain’s across Piper’s middle to release her.</p><p>Then grabbed her scarf and lifted it back to her mouth.</p><p>“Wait, wha-aaaw. Aw, omonn.”</p><p>“Be patient,” Red soothed, pinching Piper’s chin as she settled the cloth firmly in her open mouth. “I’ll be back and then we can discuss your future here. Don’t go anywhere.”</p><p>Piper settled back, jaw already complaining as she watched Red head back down the stairs and toward the tunnel where a group or raiders had gathered. She forced herself to be patient, to be satisfied with a lie well told and reminded herself that she had bought herself a second lease on life. That was all that mattered. She had to get out of here and get back home to Nat and then she could begin planning her next idiotic adventure for the sake of a two-page story.</p><p>“What’s all this about?” she heard Red asking from the mouth of the tunnel.</p><p>No one answered, but instead two new figures appeared at the edge of the cavern. The first immediately grabbed Piper’s attention, bringing her as far around the wooden post as she was able to go. She was a woman probably about Piper’s own age, slight and apparently unarmed, wearing only a blue Vault suit, she looked profoundly uncomfortable walking into the raider den. At first, Piper thought she must be another captive, but her hands were free and there was no collar around her neck.</p><p>Too busy looking at this new arrival, she scarcely noticed the second figure until Red stepped up beside her. And, as the family resemblance became clear, Piper felt her last chances at life slipping away.</p><p> </p><p>“Sis.”</p><p>The raider in charge stepped up to Lily and gave her a hug that, in Olivia’s eyes, did not quite contain the emotion she had expected. If her own sister had been abducted by raiders and had been chained to the floor for weeks on end, she would have been going insane worrying about her.</p><p>“Told you I’d find my own way out,” Lily said into Red’s shoulder, giving her a harsh slap on the shoulder as she pulled away. “What the fuck did I write you for? Don’t give him any food. It just made him cocky. You have no idea how annoying that man was.”</p><p>“Was? Please tell me you made him suffer.”</p><p>Lily turned to Olivia at what might have been the worst possible time. “You’d have to ask her. She’s the one who killed him.”</p><p>Lily’s sister turned her attention on Olivia and looked her up and down, probably noting the lack of anything sharp. “Did you, now? Well, Vault Dweller, you must be tougher than you look. What’s your name?”</p><p>“It’s Olivia. And it was nothing.”</p><p>“Nothing? This girl got Nightshade to turn on him! We left in a hurry after she started putting those darts into her own people, making them go crazy.” Lily shook her head and gave Olivia a shove that made her jump. “It was fucking insane! They were ripping each other apart with their bare hands when we left. God, I hope she bled out. Or got eaten by mirelurks.”</p><p>“She’s dead, then?” The raider boss turned on Olivia again. “You’re just bringing me all sorts of wonderful news, aren’t you? And, unlike some people, I think you’re actually telling me the truth.”</p><p>She nodded over her shoulder and, for the first time, Olivia noticed another woman in the room. Black hair hanging around her eyes, wearing a dark jacket with the sleeves cut short and ripped-up jeans that were tucked into black boots, the woman sat chained to a wooden post, a thick scarf crammed into her mouth as a gag. The outfit reminded her of Nightshade, but this woman did not look like a confident killer. Her eyes were wide and locked on Olivia’s, pleading as Olivia tried her best not to stare.</p><p>Idiot that she was, she missed whatever Lily said to her sister next, only looking back when Lily again nudged her with her elbow. “Hey. You know her?”</p><p>Olivia answered without thinking. “Yes.”</p><p>Both Lily and her sister looked surprised, but it was the sister that spoke first. “No shit? Well, I hope you didn’t like her much, because she’s about to have a very bad day.”</p><p>“What happened?” Lily asked while Olivia tried to remember what she was doing here.</p><p>“This bitch snuck in just this morning. I’ve had her sitting there most of the day, thinking about what she did. I was going to send her back to look for you, but I guess I don't need her anymore. And if I don't need her anymore, that makes me want to have a little fun.” The raider sneered in a way that made Olivia dearly miss Nightshade. At least she had been vaguely reasonable. “Gonna take her up the road, break her legs, leave her for the behemoth. Should be a good show, huh boys?”</p><p>The assembled raiders laughed and jeered and the poor woman sank lower into her chains, looking terrified out of her mind. Even as she sank, her eyes remained fixed on Olivia’s, pleading that she do something. She couldn’t look away.</p><p>“Well, Olivia, you can call me Red,” the raider boss said, coming forward to put her hand on Olivia’s shoulder. “And now that you’ve brought my sister back, what do you say we find you something to eat? Maybe something a little warmer than that Vault suit. We’ll have you set up for life here, don’t you worry.”</p><p>Red whistled and gestured to the woman in chains and some of the other raiders began moving toward her. The woman started to shout through the balled-up cloth in her mouth but any words were lost as she began to thrash against the chains.</p><p>“That’s alright. I don’t need any of that.”</p><p>Lily cast a confused glance between Olivia and her sister. “Uh, you Vault types don’t eat normal food or what?”</p><p>“You want to pay me back for your sister, right?” Olivia asked, pressing down on the lid that was keeping the panic in her gut from boiling over. Red nodded carefully and she took her chance. “Then let her go.”</p><p>Some of the other raiders were already undoing the woman’s chains. She was lunging at them, kicking feebly against the chains as they gathered around her. Lily scoffed. “You got a thing for women chained to the floor or something? What do you want with her?”</p><p>“I know her,” Olivia repeated, doubling down on a lie she was completely unprepared to embellish. She didn’t even know the woman’s name. “She’s a friend. And if you let her go, I’ll go with her. You won’t have to feed me or anything.”</p><p>Red whistled again and the raiders stopped, turning to one another in a confusion that was proving infectious. She gave Olivia a hard look but addressed her sister first. “You were chained to the floor?”</p><p>“Yeah. A lot like how you’ve got that girl set up, except I was on my back between two brewing vats. At least she can see the room without straining her neck.”</p><p>Olivia kept her eyes fixed on Red but she could feel the other woman still looking at her in silence. Red screwed up her face in what looked like physical pain. “That woman lied to me, snuck her way in here, and was going to cheat her way back out the door. But… was she one of the assholes who grabbed you, Lil?”</p><p>Lily shook her head. “No. That was Nightshade. I’ll never forget that. Come to think of it, I don’t recognize her at all.”</p><p>Red sniffed, turning back to the prisoner and shouted “Looks like it’s your lucky day! Go home, girl. You’re shit at being a raider, but today it saved your life.” Some of the other raiders laughed and Red motioned over her shoulder, turning back to Olivia. “You said you knew her? Go say hello. Make sure she knows you saved her miserable life.”</p><p>Olivia did as she was told, crossing the room until she was standing over the woman she did not know at all. Those eyes remained fixed on hers, dark and shimmering in the dim light. If Olivia had been in her position, she would have been crying her eyes out in terror, so if those were tears she would not blame her.</p><p>She knelt, gently pulling the wadded scarf free of the woman’s mouth and whispering “Hey. Play along.”</p><p>The woman’s eyes, for the briefest moment, narrowed almost playfully. Chained to the floor, gagged, and surrounded by armed lunatics who were moments away from feeding her to whatever the hell a behemoth was, and this woman was not even shaken.</p><p>Olivia took a moment as she adjusted the scarf around the woman’s neck to wonder if she would ever meet anyone normal again, and then began searching for the locks holding her in place. “Is there a key, or -”</p><p>The chains fell loose in her hands. There were no locks, just knots and large clips holding them in place. Somehow, they had all fallen loose. “Not my first time,” the woman said quietly.</p><p>“Oh. Okay.” Olivia fumbled around awkwardly as the woman helped herself up, feeling suddenly very useless. “Uh, wait, what’s your name?”</p><p>“Kara, for now.” The woman whispered. “But the name’s Piper, and have I got some questions for you once we’re out of here.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. The Woman out of Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Olivia gets her first glimpse of Diamond City and agrees to do an interview with Piper</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The moment they were out of sight of the Federal Reserve Stockpile, Piper Wright came alive, rounding on the bewildered and sleep-deprived Olivia with wide eyes and waggling fingers. Even before she spoke, the sheer amount of energy the woman could put into a hand gesture reminded Olivia that she had not slept since leaving the Vault. Adrenaline had carried her this far but even that eventually ran dry and right now she was running on fumes.</p><p>“Whoo! That was - that was not what I expected. You’ve got some amazing timing, friend!” Piper bounced along like a living Energizer bunny, stretching her limbs and looking over her shoulder at where she should have died. “I gotta say, I didn’t know how I was going to get out of that one. If they’d actually managed to drag me out there and leave me for a behemoth… the things I do for a story.”</p><p>Olivia, now nursing a mild headache as her body tried to shut itself down, managed a few blinks of confusion. “Story?”</p><p>“Yeah, I - oh, you’re a Vault Dweller. This is weird. Normally people know me by reputation. Probably a good thing you don’t or you’d have left me tied to that post, huh? Piper Wright, investigative journalist, nosy neighbor, and unsuccessful raider. Good thing that wasn’t my career of choice, I guess.” The woman beamed at Olivia as she introduced herself, ticking off her accomplishments on her fingers. “I tried going undercover with those raiders to see what exactly was going on at this stockpile. Diamond City’s had a food shortage - well, it could have a shortage eventually, if we ran out of noodles or if the Institute hacked a certain Protectron. Anyway, I went there to see if good old DC Security might be able to ransack the place or if Mayor McDingus could strike a deal with the occupants. Turns out raiders aren’t exactly big fans of the press.”</p><p>Most of the words went in one ear and out the other, but Olivia did her best to listen. She did catch two words that interested her quite a bit. “Diamond City?”</p><p>“That’s right! You lookin to visit? I could give you the tour. The least I could do is buy dinner for the one who saved me from being dinner.” Piper did a little skip-shuffle as they went from overland trails to a paved access road, determined to appreciate her unbroken legs. “You’ll have to promise not to mention this to my sister. She’ll go through the roof if she knows I came all the way out here and got nothing. I’ll just tell her something more interesting came up.”</p><p>Even as tired as she was, Olivia did not miss the sudden shift in Piper’s mood. It was not the same kind of predatory gaze that Nightshade had given her, the sort that made her feel like a rabbit staring up at a slavering wolf, but it still made her feel a little weak in the knees. She had to remind herself that she was still moving up in the world. Watcher and his ilk had been murderers, and Lily and Red seemed no better. Nightshade, as terrifying as she was, had at least been kind to her in her own way, but this felt different. Piper was not a raider, she was a reporter.</p><p>And she had a home in Diamond City. That was where Nightshade had told her to go, and so far that was the only direction she had. If it had running water, walls, and a place to sleep, she would be willing to call it home for now.</p><p>Piper continued to study her as she walked. “One-Eleven, huh? Never heard of that one. You from outside the Commonwealth?”</p><p>“You could say that.” After two short days, Olivia did not yet consider herself a citizen of the New World. “But no, we were just up the road. Sort of by Sanctuary Hills.”</p><p>The reporter turned fully on her, an excited smile on her lips and eyes alight with questions. “So is this the first time you’ve opened your doors to the public?”</p><p>“I don’t know.”</p><p>The answer caught Piper flat-footed but she recovered quickly, one hand producing a pen from thin air as the other dug in her coat pockets for something to write on. “Can you elaborate on - hang on. I know I brought a notepad. Did they take it? Ugh! Probably using it as toilet paper. It’s hard enough to find good paper out here, you know?”</p><p>Piper continued to fish around in her jacket, unzipping it at one point and patting around on the inside with mounting irritation. Olivia patted her own pockets lamely. She had given her last worldly possession to a giant roach. “Sorry. I would tell you more, but -”</p><p>“Would you? That’s great! You hold those thoughts and once we get home, I’ll set you up with an interview. How’s that sound? Coffee, some noodles, I think I have some sweet rolls lying around somewhere, we’ll make a date of it.”</p><p>Olivia snorted despite her weary efforts to hold it in. “It wouldn’t be the worst date I’ve ever had.”</p><p>“If there’s time, I’d love to hear about that, too.” Piper was grinning at her but was still fishing in her pockets over and over again, hoping that if she looked hard enough one would form in her waiting hands. “Can’t be many options when you’re trapped underground with the same people your whole life. Diamond City’s pool isn’t more than ankle deep and we’re open to the whole world.”</p><p>For some reason, the thought of dating anyone in this bomb-cratered hellscape made Olivia want to laugh until she cried. That wasn’t how things worked at the end of the world. People were supposed to be miserable and dirty, with her and Piper currently filling one stereotype each respectively, and have no interest in anything besides just staying alive. It was supposed to be more animal, more… actually, she wasn’t sure how it was supposed to work. For the ones stuck in places like this, it wasn’t supposed to work at all. The curtain was supposed to fall on humanity slowly, the good guys surviving by the skin of their teeth until the world was overrun by people like Nightshade and they all killed each other.</p><p>The movie ended when the promised land was found, somewhere that looked exactly like the old world except with high walls and barbed-wire keeping out the bad things. That was where people went on dates and lived out normal lives, politely ignoring what was happening to people like Nightshade.</p><p>For how much the woman was on her mind, Olivia half-expected to turn around and find her walking angrily up the street behind them. Part of her hoped she was alright, but that part was notoriously bad with women and had gotten her into a lot of trouble in college. Still, for all her insanity, Nightshade had been kind to her, after a fashion, and Olivia appreciated that after seeing what people like Red were capable of.</p><p>Similar to what she had told Piper, steak and soda in an abandoned brewery was not the worst date she had ever been on.</p><p>That thought did wring a tired laugh from Olivia’s chest and got a strange look from Piper. “Sorry. I, uh, I haven’t slept much lately.”</p><p>Piper raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you’ve had quite the adventure since coming to the surface. How long have you been up here?”</p><p>“Two days, I think.”</p><p>“Well, get your story straight, Blue, because you’re going to give me the whole thing, front to back, when we get home.” Piper seemed to reach toward her head for a hat that wasn’t there, her fingers settling for adjusting her hair instead. Only then did Olivia realize what a mess she must have been, all covered in dirt and sweat. “LIke I said, I’ll give you the grand tour and we’ll stop by my place for an interview. I don’t know how many friends you’ll make saving me from raiders, but people love a good story, and something tells me yours will have people lining up for the next installment.”</p><p>Olivia’s tired brain was in no state to do things like ask her why she believed such a ridiculous thing or even properly explain how out of sorts she was. It was a lucky thing that Piper loved to talk and that Olivia was enjoying listening. The monologue, broken by short one-word answers whenever Piper asked her a question, lasted well into the afternoon and to the other side of the Charles.</p><p>She did not fully recognize the way to Fenway Park until they were standing outside the entrance, her past life stunned at the lack of crowds. Piper led her past armed guards and what looked like gumball machines spewing smoke with big guns poking from the front. On instinct, Olivia reached for her purse, only to realize her driver’s license and credit cards were still in her car. They also probably carried a bit less value these days.</p><p>The guards seemed to know Piper and let the both of them through, their eyes lingering curiously on Olivia. Piper greeted half the people they passed by name, smiling cheerfully to men behind the ticket counters that were far better armed than they had been in the old days.</p><p>Again, that nagging thought came to the surface. How long had she been gone? It had clearly been years. Nightshade had called it old-world history when she had Olivia flat on her back. It hadn’t seemed like the proper time to ask the date. The same was true with Watcher and his gang and with Lily after that. Nightshade, and now Piper, were the only ones she would have thought to ask, and she was already nurturing a preference between the two.</p><p>Passing into the stadium itself, Piper climbed the steps ahead of Olivia and gestured grandly when she reached the top. “Here it is! Home, sweet home.”</p><p>Stepping up to where the stairs met the stands, Olivia found herself once again unprepared for the future, but this time in a way that did not terrify her. Looking down at what was once the baseball diamond, she instead saw a bustling marketplace, complete with neon signs and tattered cloth overhangs that gave everything a nostalgic, Mos Eisley feel. Where cloth was missing, corrugated steel shone in the afternoon sun, roofing dozens of shacks and buildings, one of which was topped with an old school bus.</p><p>Doing a slow turn more suited to a Disney princess than the survivor of a nuclear bomb, Olivia surveyed the stands and found herself smiling. Steel buildings stacked on top of each other like apartments lined the walls even as people streamed in and out of doorways that would lead down into the stadium underbelly, where she imagined snack stands still operated, selling the same hot dogs they had before the world ended. The crooked steel supports reminded her of charming animated films she had watched as a child even as part of her screamed that she should move before the whole thing came tumbling down.</p><p>Even high above in the old private booths and press box, she could see figures lounging in the sun, looking down on a world determined to rebuild. It was enough to take all her exhaustion away until she finished her turn, her eyes falling back on Piper, who stood with a curious expression.</p><p>“What I wouldn’t give for a camera, some days,” she muttered, causing Olivia to once again feel terribly self-conscious. “We don’t get a lot of first timers and I’ve never seen anyone look at this place the way you did. You got a thing for old world relics?”</p><p>There was nothing old world about Diamond City. “I’ve just never seen anything like this.”</p><p>Piper chuckled. “Well, be sure to tell your friends when you get back to your Vault how great it is here. We could use some new faces.”</p><p>Olivia felt a pang of sadness as she remembered all those cryo pods lying dark in their metal alcoves. She had no idea how many of them were still alive, but something told her it was just her and the other woman, the one that had killed so many raiders outside Sanctuary Hills. Two survivors from an entire Vault. Somehow, she did not feel very prepared for the future.</p><p>She looked to Piper, trying to think of something to cover for her mental fog. “Sorry.”</p><p>“That’s alright. It’s been a long day,” Piper said easily, gesturing toward the city waiting just below them. “Come on. I’ve got a couch and a crate of Nuka that won’t drink itself.”</p><p>It was not a long walk. Almost at the bottom of the stairs, somewhere along what had been the third base line, was a metal shack with a glowing neon sign that read Publick Occurrences. Out front were also a small wooden box, the kind used on college campuses to anger passing freshmen, an old printing press, and what looked like essays or pamphlets stacked on a few dilapidated filing cabinets.</p><p>Piper walked to the door, sighing happily as she produced a key. “Looks like my little sister isn’t around. You’ll have to meet her when she’s out of school. Try not to tell her everything that happened, alright? You saved me from raiders, sure, but let’s maybe leave out the whole behemoth thing.”</p><p>Olivia nodded agreeably. Her mind was so scattered after two days of this insanity that she had almost forgotten about Red’s personal ambitions regarding Piper’s kneecaps.</p><p>She let herself be led into the little shack and, for the first time since leaving the Vault, actually felt somewhat safe when the door closed behind them. It was actually a very charming space, in its own way. A few dim lights burned with the electricity Nightshade had promised, illuminating the couch, small kitchen, bookshelves, and staircase near the back. A coffee table with mugs and a battered coffee pot sat stained and well-loved at the center of the main floor, a stack of comics threatening to topple off the corner. Atop one of the shelves, a radio played songs Olivia remembered from back when the world was whole.</p><p>More than anything, it looked like a quiet, happy home.</p><p>“I know it’s not much,” Piper was saying as Olivia realized she was smiling like an idiot. “But it’s home. The couch is right there. Have a seat, make yourself comfortable, and I’ll find you some dinner. We can start your interview after you’ve got something in your stomach.”</p><p>Olivia sank into the couch and almost passed out right there. For some reason, couches had never factored into her post-apocalyptic interior decorating scheme. Everything was supposed to be metal and wood, the most comfortable place in the house being two tires overlaid by bungee cords. But so long as there were people, there would be couches, and that was somehow very comforting to her weary mind.</p><p>The smell of noodles cooking was just enough to keep her from falling asleep and she sat, eyes half-closed, staring at the ceiling until Piper set the bowl down in front of her. As promised, a Nuka followed soon after.</p><p>“I don’t usually give out free meals to correspondents,” Piper said as she seated herself beside Olivia on the couch. “So don’t go telling people, alright? The paper doesn’t sell well enough to feed everyone I ask about the Institute.”</p><p>This was the second time she had mentioned the Institute but Olivia was feeling no more up to asking about it now than she had been on the road. Of greater interest was the steaming hot bowl in front of her and, for the second time in as many days, she began wolfing down a meal in front of a pretty girl with absolutely no thought given to how that might have looked. She ate like a woman starved. If her life had been a movie, this would be where Piper founded her suspicions that Vault 111 was actually breeding werewolves.</p><p>Piper, bless her heart, said nothing, politely eating from her own bowl at a more human pace. She didn’t even say anything when Olivia began to cough, having inhaled a substantial amount of broth in her frenzy. She only spoke when Olivia had settled back into her seat and was resisting the urge to drift off right there.</p><p>“You doing okay, there, Blue?”</p><p>Olivia managed a nod and a dramatic blink. “Yeah, sorry. Haven’t been this tired since college.”</p><p>“I didn’t think Vaults had things like that.” Piper tapped her pen against a notepad she had produced from thin air. “Can you tell me a little about your time there? What was Vault One-Eleven like?”</p><p>“It wasn’t in the Vault,” Olivia said, slowly realizing that her words might be on record. “It was before. I went to CIT for a few years but it didn’t work out.”</p><p>Piper stopped tapping her pen, squinting hard at Olivia and turning slowly on the couch to face her.</p><p>The look of shocked confusion made her add “I guess they’re not around anymore, huh?”</p><p>“It sounds like you’re talking about before the war,” Piper continued carefully. “Is that accurate?”</p><p>Olivia had still not put two and two together but the look on Piper’s face was certainly pushing her that way. “Yeah. Just a year before, I think. I dropped out and started doing deliveries to pay the bills. I wasn’t even enrolled in the Vault program. They let me in on accident.”</p><p>She realized she was rambling when she looked up and saw Piper’s eyes widening. “You mean to tell me you were alive before the war? Oh my God. The woman out of time.”</p><p>The last was said like the title of a newspaper article and Olivia tried her best to sit up straight and pay attention. If all her words were going to be in print, she wanted to keep them from being too embarrassing. “Well, they had us in these big tubes that froze us. I guess that explains why I’m still here.”</p><p>“That’s incredible! Two hundred years on ice and here you are! You have to tell me everything. You said you went to CIT? What was it like before the war? Were things really so tense between the old world powers? Did it feel like the end of the world was coming or was the first bomb a surprise?”</p><p>Piper kept going but Olivia had long since stopped listening. Somewhere, deep in her gut, she had known it had been too long, but she had refused to believe it. There had been part of her that had wanted to search the city for her older brother, seeing that some of the buildings were still standing. He could still have survived somehow. She had meant to ask about the west coast and about the rest of the world. Her cousins in the UK could still have been alive. Maybe it had just been the US and China that had destroyed each other, leaving the rest of the world shocked but alive.</p><p>But no, they were dead. Whether they had lived or died in the blasts, whatever they had thought, felt, seen, or done in the time they had left on this earth, it had happened while Olivia had been asleep.</p><p>She felt herself falling sideways, pulled gently down onto a waiting shoulder as her exhaustion finally overwhelmed her. Somewhere, Piper’s voice was shushing her, saying things Olivia knew weren’t true. There was nothing left of the old world, nothing left of what she had known her entire life.</p><p>The world slowly went dark and she felt herself drifting away to someone telling her “It’s alright. Everything’s going to be alright.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Cold Water</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Olivia faces her greatest challenge yet: unemployment</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Olivia groaned miserably, rolling in her bed and regretting everything she had done the night before. It must have been an epic spree of indulgence to prompt such a pounding headache, not to mention the strangely vivid dreams. Her imagination must have been working overtime, deprived of any suitable entertainment to create such a scenario.</p><p>Giant roaches were one thing, but being kidnapped by a beautiful woman who had her literally at barrel’s end? To have her, somehow, praise her for her world-shaking luck while pressing her into the floor with one finger? It wasn’t hard to read into exactly what messages her body was sending. And then there was Lily, the gunfire, and yet another beautiful woman waiting to take control even as Olivia saved her life.</p><p>She fumbled unhappily for the sheets and wrapped her arms tight around her, one bleary eye opening to see the brilliant outline of her apartment. Next to her bed was her desk and terminal, screen glowing an idle green. She must have left it on overnight. Next to it was the window, blacked out with heavy drapes to keep away the peeping neighbor every girl was praying would move next week. Also so that she could sleep through the sunrise on Saturdays.</p><p>The clothes on the floor drew her eye. She didn’t recognize that coat. Had she invited someone home?</p><p>As her vision sharpened, her eyes adjusting to the world around, the clean carpet and white walls of her apartment faded into her memory, and Olivia once again awoke to a new world. This time, instead of harsh steel and strange equipment, she was surrounded by a room that looked cozy, lived-in, and a little bit filthy.</p><p>The jacket on the floor Olivia soon recognized as the one worn by the second beautiful woman she had met since leaving the Vault. On instinct she spun around, twisting to make sure no one was tangled up in her missing sheets. There was no one, and the part of her that was awake felt a wave of relief even as she belatedly realized this must have been Piper’s bed. She tried to remember what happened the night before, but everything was just a grey blur. She had been so tired, so wrung out that she had broken down from the stress, making a mess of herself in front of a woman she had only just met.</p><p>Small chance of them jumping into bed together after that display.</p><p>With another heartfelt groan, she pushed herself to the edge of the bed, found her shoes placed neatly by the desk, and managed to descend the stairs without embarrassing herself any further. She found Piper in the small kitchen, smiling kindly as she watched an old coffee pot out of the corner of her eye. She had changed out of her leather jacket and jeans, instead sporting a pair of dark pants and a tank top that brought to mind how little time Olivia had spent at the gym.</p><p>“Hey, you. Feeling better?”</p><p>Olivia did her best to smile and nod but only managed half of each. She would have killed for a little Tylenol right now. “I think so.”</p><p>She managed to find the couch as Piper turned back to the coffee pot. “I hope so. You were out for, oh, fourteen hours now? You must have had a long couple days.”</p><p>“You can say that again,” Olivia grumbled, reality slowly dripping in, bit by bit eroding the world she had known away. It was so hard not to cling to it, as horrible as it had sometimes been.</p><p>“Well, when you’re up to it, you still owe me an interview,” Piper said almost teasingly, smiling as she turned and brought the coffee pot to the table. It smelled burnt but at the moment Olivia could not have cared less.</p><p>Piper poured her a mug and Olivia clutched it in both hands, holding it beneath her face and letting the steam wash over her. “Sorry. That was…”</p><p>“A lot to take in?” Piper finished. “Don’t sweat it. You’re not the first person I’ve made cry during an interview.”</p><p>“You didn’t exactly catch me at my best,” Olivia said with a chuckle.</p><p>“That’s usually how I like it. When you’re off your guard, you’re honest. You’re not trying to hide something or keep a story going. Not that you seem like the type. Of course, you did lie your way past those raiders, so maybe I’m underestimating you. Was that all this was, Blue? Did you get all emotional to pull the wool over my eyes? Make me trust you?”</p><p>Piper was grinning good-naturedly, which made Olivia feel slightly better about her complete loss of control. “You got me. I just wanted a place to sleep, that’s all.”</p><p>“Hey, after saving my life, you can live on this couch until you’re good and ready.” Piper sipped her coffee, nodding toward the notepad she had been using during their very abbreviated interview. “You’re lucky, you know? I’m going to do something for you that I’ve never done before. I’m going to keep what you told me off the record. It never happened. You take your time, get your story straight, and when you’re ready, I’ll put it in print.”</p><p>“Thank you.” Olivia could breathe another sigh of relief knowing whatever she had said would stay between them. “What, uh, did I say, exactly?”</p><p>Piper’s face turned sympathetic over the rim of her coffee cup. “You told me about the Vault, or at least the things that you woke up to. And you mentioned your family. I’m sorry, Blue, really. I didn’t know.”</p><p>“How could you?” Olivia asked in an attempt to be good natured. “I guess I knew just from looking around, but I hadn’t really thought about it. I couldn’t let myself think about it. There was always someone pointing a gun at me or we were running from other people with guns. And then when I was with you, it was just… normal, I guess.”</p><p>“I can imagine. Being alive before all this and seeing it now,” Piper shook her head, still smiling kindly. “I’d be a little off balance myself. I’m sorry about your family - about your whole world, actually. We’re trying to make the most of it, if that makes you feel better.”</p><p>Olivia snorted, apparently determined to make herself as unattractive as possible in this woman’s eyes. “Thanks. Hey, it’s not all bad. You can see the stars really well at night.”</p><p>Piper seemed to take that in stride, enjoying her coffee and sitting back against the couch comfortably. Olivia at last lifted the cup to her lips and tasted what she already knew would be the worst coffee she’d ever tasted. It honestly was not as bad as she was expecting. There weren’t as many grounds rolling around on her tongue as she’d imagined, most of them having sunk to the bottom of the mug by now, and the taste of charred beans would probably make it easier to stomach whatever was for breakfast. There were only so many ready-made meals left after two hundred years and the people here had to eat something. Given how big the bugs had gotten, cows must have gone through some spectacular changes of their own. Maybe the stadium wall was meant to keep out the bovine behemoths.</p><p>Taking another drink, doing her best to swallow it properly and not offend her host by gagging, she wondered if this was where her lucky streak would at last come to an end. Not every giant monster would be as friendly as Big Green, nor every raider as superstitious as Watcher. Even as ruined as the world was, she was certain it only had room for one Nightshade, and hopefully that one was too busy ripping raiders apart with her bare hands to remember Olivia even existed.</p><p>Now that she was here, with a roof over her head and bitter coffee brewed to insult God in her hand, she might have actually found somewhere she would not mind spending the night.</p><p>“So, do you have somewhere to stay?” Piper asked, reading Olivia’s mind and not much liking its freeloading monologue. “Not that I’m trying to kick you out, it’s just that I’ve got my little sister to look after and, well, Publick Occurrences wasn’t built for three girls under one roof.”</p><p>Olivia began shaking her head, unsure even of where to begin. She was not even sure what people did for work these days and it was too much to hope that there was a position available for someone running packages across town.</p><p>“You can stay until you find something, of course,” Piper continued quickly, easily reading the fear on her face. “I don’t mind the couch. Actually, you might want to take it over the bed. It’s a little lumpy but you won’t have me sitting up next to you, typing out angry articles after midnight. Green light and loud banging on the keyboard by your head probably isn’t the most relaxing thing. Sorry.”</p><p>“That’s alright,” Olivia said, laughing as Piper backed up so quickly. If she were someone else, she might have considered squeezing that guilt for all it was worth, but she would rather sleep in an alley than impose on her only friend. That probably said something about her. “I’ll try and find something today. This is a dumb question, but what do I do for, well, anything? Do you still have apartments? Is rent monthly? Do you have any jobs around here fit for someone two hundred years old?”</p><p>“Lucky for you, you’re pretty spry for your age, so we can probably find you something.” Piper tilted her head, eyeing Olivia up and down and no doubt concluding that manual labor was not in her wheelhouse. “Probably. What did you do before, you know, all this?”</p><p>“I delivered packages.”</p><p>Piper blinked. “Okay. We can work with that.”</p><p>The long silence that followed indicated that they could not, in fact, work with that. Piper scratched her head, finished her coffee, got up, brewed another pot of the sinful stuff, sat back down, and began grasping at straws. “Did you study anything at CIT?”</p><p>“I was, uh, undecided. Mostly took literature classes.”</p><p>That earned her a pained look and the sight of Piper pursing her lips in mounting anxiety. This Vault dweller would be living on her couch forever. “Any other time, I’d love to hear about that, but that doesn’t exactly pay the tab, does it? I guess you could try asking around at the shops. Do you know anything about sewing? Or clothes? Guns?”</p><p>Three shakes of her head followed. “Sorry. I was a secretary for a while. Do you still need those?”</p><p>“You’re more than welcome to proofread my articles, but you may have noticed that I’m not exactly flush with caps. Besides that, the only secretary position in town is taken and even if it was open, you definitely don’t want that job.” Piper caught Olivia’s quizzical look and grimaced. “The Mayor here isn’t the most trustworthy person, let’s put it that way. There’s a very real possibility that he’s an Institute plant, a Synth working to push Diamond City in the right direction or just give them a place to test all their new models.”</p><p>The blank expression on Olivia’s face seemed to both excite and annoy Piper, which was about as good as Olivia could hope for when dealing with attractive women. “You’ve mentioned them before. What are they? And what’s a Synth?”</p><p>Piper adopted the familiar expression of an evangelist eager to begin her sermon. “That’s the million-cap question, isn’t it? So, here’s the short version. The Institute is a secret shadow organization that sends synthetic humans - Synths - out to replace people, killing off the original and living out their lives until they’re discovered. No one knows why they do it or where they’re coming from, but they loot the Commonwealth for advanced technology and kill anyone who gets in their way.”</p><p>Olivia, face once again blank after a confused emotional journey, tried to reconcile the science fiction element of this post-apocalyptic world. “So they have fake people?”</p><p>“With real blood, organs, warm laughter, everything you’d expect from your neighbor. Like I said, Blue, no one knows why they do it, but damn if they don’t do it well.”</p><p>“But they have enough stuff to make fake people, wherever they are, and everyone else is just…” Olivia gestured wildly at the rusted metal walls and the desolation that lay beyond, forgetting momentarily that she might offend the woman who called this place her home.</p><p>“It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?” Piper agreed, kindly overlooking the ungrateful child that had just rolled out of her own bed. “I still wonder why they didn’t at least try to help us. Everyone who was around back then said it went badly but no one says why. Although if you’ve seen the old models of Synths running around, they don’t look much different from ferals or super mutants. They’re like skeletons made of metal and hoses. Very unsettling to bump into in the dark.”</p><p>That seemed a common theme, here in the distant future. “I guess. Hey, if they have indoor plumbing, they can replace me, next.”</p><p>“Not funny, Blue. When I’m done with this, I’ll show you the showers and you can stop tempting fate.” Piper hoisted her black water, making Olivia wonder what kind of a person drank not just black coffee, but burnt black coffee. What a tragedy that irradiated coffee beans did not brew sweet instead of bitter. “Anyway, I’ve been looking into them for years and I haven’t found anything substantial besides Mayor McDonough running on batteries. No one even knows where they are. All the people on the inside never come out, or if they do, they don’t come to the Commonwealth. The only things we ever see are Synths and so far none of them have agreed to give me an interview. Well, except Nick, and of course he can’t remember how to get back.”</p><p>Olivia did her best to weigh that threat against everything else she had seen in the Wasteland so far and found it somewhat hard to place. Was being quietly bumped off and replaced more or less terrifying than what zombies, giant bugs, or Nightshade could do to her?</p><p>“You see, I’ve been after them for years, now,” Piper continued as Olivia tried very hard not to think about what Nightshade could do if she found her. “And I’m convinced the Institute isn’t in the Commonwealth at all. They can pop up almost anywhere, come and go from the most remote places without a trace. I don’t think there’s a door or a big Vaulty elevator to get in at all. I think… it’s in the sky.”</p><p>Having failed to push the angry raider fully from her mind, Olivia was convinced she had not heard that right. “What?”</p><p>“Think about it,” Piper urged, and in all fairness Olivia was trying to do just that. “They could be dropping people off in invisible vertibirds or they could have some levitation system that moves them up and down. I’ve heard the Brotherhood has massive airships they use to move around. Why couldn’t the Institute have something bigger?”</p><p>“And invisible?”</p><p>“What, you didn’t have that kind of thing back before the war?” Piper almost sounded offended, like the lack of invisible sky cities was some fundamental failing of the old world.</p><p>And she had a point. “If we did, no one ever told me.”</p><p>“Governments never tell their people the truth, I guess.” Piper sighed, setting her mug on the table and snatching a beat-up red trench coat from a nearby rack. “Alright, Blue, you ready to see the sights?”</p><p>Blue was not ready, but neither was she willing to impose any further on the woman who had already done so much for her. “Should I bring anything? I, uh, actually don’t have anything to bring, so nevermind.”</p><p>Piper chortled, pulling out a roll of cloth and handing it over to a very confused Olivia. “Here. This should get you started. There’s fifty caps in there. Should be enough for food, maybe some clothes since you don’t seem to have any. I’ll walk you around and then you’re on your own! I’m kidding. We put out a pretty volatile article this morning, so you might not want to be around me all that much today, but I won’t leave you out to dry. Take your time, explore the city, and come on back when your feet get sore. Worse comes to worse, we can get you a room at the inn.”</p><p>With a confident smile and a swirl of her coat about her shoulders, Piper snagged a newsboy cap from the same rack and put it on with another flourish, showing off the handwritten label on the side that marked her as part of the press. That label had afforded dubious protection back in the old world, but maybe the raiders out here were big on reporters. And if Olivia had learned anything about Piper so far, it was that the story mattered much more than any danger she had to face to tell it.</p><p> </p><p>Olivia’s first days in the Commonwealth had not been the best of her life. She had seen more blood coming out of people than she ever had before, had spent most of it as a raider prisoner being threatened with slavery or death, and had been hungry, thirsty, and sleep-deprived for most of it. Her high points included a giant roach and the fact that one of her captors had been very attractive. All told, things had not started well, but now that she was with Piper, she had started to at least find her footing.</p><p>That changed the moment Piper showed her the showers. She had a feeling they would be communal, but she hadn’t really internalized that just yet. When they got there, most of the stalls were empty, but there were a few late risers getting ready for the day. Or potentially washing off the blood of their enemies. Olivia honestly wasn’t sure anymore.</p><p>Piper had ushered her into a stall, given her a towel to cover up with that had far too many holes in it, and had promptly run off to distribute her newest article. From the sound of things, it had hit the stands with all the force of an atomic bomb and Olivia was hesitant to ask for anything beyond that. Hopefully she would not be back out in the Wasteland by nightfall. Only two people had offered her shelter so far and she did not feel like looking for the other one just yet.</p><p>So Olivia tried to think of anything else as she indulged in a spray of hot water, something she had never been so grateful for in all her life. Piper had also provided her a well-aged bar of soap but at the moment she was just happy to wash the grime away.</p><p>She stood under the showerhead, letting it wash over her face, and tried to relax for just a moment.</p><p>All at once, the water turned freezing.</p><p>Olivia shrieked, as did everyone else in the stalls, and instinctively leapt out of the water, nearly slipping on the tile floor as she did so. Her skid took her out into the public part of the showers, naked as the day she was born, and she only just managed to get the old towel around her before she gave the security officers a free show.  The other patrons were all too busy complaining to peek at her, though most had continued showering despite the frigid water.</p><p>One of the security officers poked his head in with a groan. “Again? Damn it, I’m off in ten minutes! No way it’ll be fixed by then.”</p><p>Seeing no one else in a position to respond, and being thoroughly flustered by her lack of undergarments, Olivia scooted towards her discarded Vault suit. “What happened?”</p><p>The officer gave her a look that, surprisingly, involved his eyes mostly staying on her face. “What - oh, you’re a Vault dweller. Well, welcome to Diamond City. Hope you didn’t come for the hot water. It’ll be a few days before we can get whatever’s down there fixed. My guess is it’s probably one of the boilers.”</p><p>“I’m just amazed you have hot water,” Olivia managed as she worked her way over to her clothes. The old shower rooms had small alcoves for changing but she was not about to strip away her last layer of modesty in front of a strange man with a baseball bat.</p><p>“One of our many claims to fame,” the man chuckled, seeming thoroughly uninterested in what was underneath the towel. “There’s a whole bunch of boilers beneath the stadium, but every now and then one of them goes and this happens. We had someone who knew how they worked, but a few weeks back some mutants got him. Damn shame, really. Turns out those things keep the stadium warm in winter, too.”</p><p>She was still getting used to the way brutal murders were so casually referenced around here, but at least now her stomach didn’t do somersaults at the thought of mutant-related murder. “So no one knows how to fix it?”</p><p>“Nah.” Now the man looked at her more curiously. “Unless you Vault types know about plumbing.”</p><p>He sounded almost hopeful and Olivia did her best to get her own hopes up with him. This might be a job she could actually do. “I was a plumber for a little while. I could take a look, if you don’t mind.”</p><p>“I can clear it with Maintenance, but I think they’ll be more than happy to have you around.” The man looked toward her expectantly, nodding toward the door. “Well, as soon as you get dressed, we can head on down. Might regret taking that shower first, honestly.” After another awkward moment, he realized Olivia was not going to move while he was in the door. “Right. Sorry. You Vault dwellers probably have more privacy than we do. I’ll be out here.”</p><p>Olivia quickly put on what she now assumed was the last pair of good underwear in the world before zipping up her Vault suit and hurrying out the door. It only now occurred to her that her plumbing experience had lasted about a year and that she would normally never have been allowed to work on something like this, but that she was the best they had, so be it. A girl had to eat.</p><p>Maintenance proved to be more security officers, this time with helmets painted bright blue and with tool belts around their waists. One of them was kind enough to give Olivia a spare, asking her “You work on anything like this in the Vault?”</p><p>She did not feel like explaining. “Usually smaller ones.”</p><p>That got a few understanding chortles from the others. They descended into the bowels of the stadium, through doors marked Employees Only, to a massive room filled with all the mechanical minutia of the old world. It was strange, seeing it all laid out like this, knowing that things so integral to daily life had fallen so far out of style that they would ask a complete stranger for help with them.</p><p>Olivia was given a flashlight and turned it on with all the others when it became apparent the lighting down here was fickle at best. A few security officers spread out, peering around boilers and other massive, groaning contraptions of steel and steam. Again, one of them muttered “They’re looking for bugs.”</p><p>She nodded sagely, having experience in that particular domain. “Is that usually a problem down here?”</p><p>“Not usually, but we’ve had some before. Could be mirelurks, maybe a feral that got in through the vents. Once we found the problem, we’ll let you get to work, but we don’t want you getting chewed up before you get the chance.”</p><p>“Thanks for that,” Olivia said quietly, watching security walk almost lazily between the pipes.</p><p>They returned after a few minutes with an “All clear,” and Olivia was free to go.</p><p>She found the problem soon enough. The boilers all had fairly modern displays, so they all must have been replaced before the bombs fell, and most looked fairly green and happy. Well, not green, since all of their maintenance lights were flashing in annoyance, but at least they were on and not bright red.</p><p>All but one. She found the offending boiler and knelt in front of it, trying in vain to remember all the things she had been taught so long ago. Security had wandered away but a few of the maintenance workers had stayed with her, looking over her shoulder and making thoughtful noises that Olivia was pretty sure were fake. None of these people knew how these worked, so that ruled out asking for help. But, if she could manage to fix this, she might actually have a job here.</p><p>The way the boilers were arranged had them gated off in little iron fences, keeping them away from the main thoroughfare. The rest of the room contained electrical generators and a dozen other things with blinking lights and making grinding noises, all of them segregated like suburban homes with picket fences. It probably made sense to someone, but all it did now was make it so Olivia had to squeeze back into the pipes to see the back of the boilers and pray to God someone had taped a manual or something to the wall.</p><p>So squeeze she did, prompting concerned noises from the rest of the workers. “Hey, are you going to be okay back there?”</p><p>“I’ll be fine,” Olivia promised, both to herself and to them. “Just need to check some things.”</p><p>She wriggled her way back into the pipes, stepping over valves and hissing tubes until she found, happily, an ancient plastic bag taped to the wall that had waited two hundred years for someone to come along and open it. Only so far in the future, with all hope lost and society crumbled to ash, would anyone in their right mind be happy to see the instruction manual for an industrial boiler.</p><p>And sitting right below it was the cause of all their problems. A black mass, invisible from outside the cage, shifted on the ground, scuttling about until it was looking up at Olivia with two inhuman eyes. Its carapace streaked with green, its legs wrapped around the very pipe that had ruined her shower, a creature about the size of a german shepherd raised its head toward her and let out a hiss that changed in pitch from warning to what she could swear was joy.</p><p>“Hey!” She lowered her voice quickly, not wanting to attract the attention of the men with guns and bats. “Hey. What are you doing here?”</p><p>Big Green hissed cheerfully and scuttled up the wall until it was level with stomach and poked at her pockets eagerly.</p><p>“I don’t have anything! Quit that,” she hissed, looking over her shoulder to see if the others had noticed. “They’re gonna see you.”</p><p>More annoyed hissing followed, and so did a shouted “Hey, is that a radroach? Hey! Hey, Vault girl!”</p><p>“It’s okay! It’s okay, he’s friendly, he’s just - hey, quit it! I don’t have anything for you.” Big Green continued to hiss in protest, making Olivia roll her eyes. “Do you have anything to give him? He likes chocolate. Probably isn’t good for him, but I don’t know what else he eats.”</p><p>“People, Vault girl, he eats people!” one of the men shouted, sounding more annoyed than worried. “Or they usually do, anyway. He doesn’t - oh, by the Wall, what is he doing?”</p><p>Big Green had scuttled onto Olivia’s back and was now latched on like a backpack, peering over her shoulder as Olivia removed the manual from the wall. “You are probably filthy, you know that? Should give you a bath after this.”</p><p>More hissing followed as Olivia held her light and tried to parse what was in the instruction manual. The troubleshooting section was, as they always were, about two pages long and contained massively unhelpful bullet points, most of which referenced a customer support number that probably would not be helping her anytime soon. She shut the book with a groan, hefting it in one hand and looking over her shoulder at Big Green.</p><p>“Oh, fine, have it.” She held the manual up over one shoulder and watched as it disappeared quite violently into her pet roach’s mouth. “There. Happy?”</p><p>Happy chittering ensued and Olivia went back to her work. “I don’t see anything. All the connections look fine, you still have power, it’s just - oh.”</p><p>Big Green hopped off her back and scuttled back around on the floor, bumping several pipes before settling back on his original perch, just above a valve that he had very obviously shut off with his big bug legs.</p><p>“You are definitely getting a bath after this,” Olivia promised as she turned the valve, prompting an angry hiss and a flutter of his wings. She didn’t mean it, mostly because bringing him into the showers was probably more trouble than it was worth, but if she ever found a garden hose, that would change.</p><p>The maintenance workers outside all whooped happily which told Olivia it had worked and things were back to normal. She turned to leave and was not surprised when Big Green hitched a ride, his wings causing a chorus of uneasy grumbles from the workers.</p><p>“Is he, you know, okay?”</p><p>Big Green hissed quietly. “He’s fine. He found me a few days ago, ate my last candy bar, and then ran off when I got kidnapped by raiders!”</p><p>That seemed to sufficiently chastise the big bug and calm some of the fears in front of her. “Well, as long as he stays down here. With you. I guess this is your space now, miss. Did you - did you say you were kidnapped by raiders?”</p><p>Olivia just shrugged, a motion that seemed to annoy Big Green into flitting across the room. “It’s been a weird couple days.”</p><p>The man nodded. “Alright, well, why don’t we go talk to the mayor and get you set up with a real job. Hell, I guess this makes you the head of operations down here, assuming you’re sticking around. Do you have a place in town? Wait, didn’t I see you with Piper this morning?”</p><p>The questions continued all the way to the press box, and with every one, Olivia wished Piper were there to help her out. She seemed much better at talking to people than Olivia was. But at least she had done something right. And she had a job, now! Maybe she would actually survive this future.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Freedom of the Press</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Olivia meets Nat and tries to help boost paper sales. Piper experiences consequences and meets the other Vault 111 survivor.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Olivia rose from the subterranean clothing store and emerged back into the market, a spring in her step that could only come from unforeseen professional excellence. In just eight hours, she had gone from unemployed and distraught temporal castaway to the head of maintenance concerning Diamond City’s heating and plumbing. She was employed, respected, and had even been promised official housing near the town square. Finally, she was getting the career recognition she had always craved. If only her high school career counselor could see her now.</p><p>It did not occur to her, because she did not let it, that this spoke volumes about her pre-war competence. It also did not occur to her that, in order to find professional success, she had been forced to wait until society imploded and she was the only one left with even the slightest amount of experience.</p><p>No, rather than dwell on the negative, she proudly adjusted the bright blue baseball cap on her head that declared her station to all around. She still wore her Vault suit, but over the top was now a comfortable grey peacoat with only a few bullet holes in the back, all of which were tactfully sewn up to keep the cold out, and under her arm were another two sets of clothes. She was particularly excited about the jeans she had managed to find that were tight enough to be cinched up with a belt and not fall immediately around her ankles. Apparently, finding pants that fit in this world was as hard as it had been before the war. Her loot also included her official maintenance helmet, flashlight, and toolbelt, a backpack, a canteen, and four packs of snack cakes that she was determined to keep far away from Big Green.</p><p>Several of the security officers in the market nodded to her as she passed, some stopping to greet her and introduce themselves. She found herself smiling even when they told her about the grisly fate of her predecessor. The world had ended, but it hadn’t. Everyone had died, but there were still people trying to survive. She had lost everything, but had won it all back in bottle caps. This place, this future filled with giant roaches and two-headed cow monsters, could actually be her home. She could make a life here. All it had taken was a few kidnappings and a lot of luck.</p><p>“Everyone who’s anyone reads the Publick! Pick up your copy here!”</p><p>A young girl’s voice rang out above the hum of life in the market, growing louder as Olivia rounded the street corner that would take her back to Publick Occurrences. She had been expecting to see Piper plucking at shirtsleeves but found the world’s last journalist nowhere to be seen.</p><p>Instead, standing on the small box just outside a newsstand now almost bereft of paper, was a girl probably not even ten years old, waving a paper over her head and trying to get the attention of passing travellers. This had to be Piper’s little sister. She hadn’t gotten to meet her the night before, on account of her passing out in Piper’s bed for the better part of a day, but what other child labor would Piper employ to sell her paper?</p><p>A few passersby stopped to examine the paper, which prompted a quick “Two caps a copy! Just two caps to protect yourself from the Institute!”</p><p>Those who had stopped quickly moved on, shaking their heads and laughing while the girl stuck her tongue out behind their backs. She then went right back to it, calling out again to the next person coming down from the stands “Has the Institute infiltrated Diamond City? Read the paper to find out!”</p><p>Olivia made her way up the street, passing the two men who had refused to pay for the paper a moment ago. One was laughing as the other disparaged both paper and papergirl. “Come on, two caps? To read some made-up story about fake people disappearing folks? Girl needs a better sales pitch, if you ask me.”</p><p>The young girl was not out of earshot and did a poor job hiding her desire to strangle the man with her bare hands, an art most pre-war girls were intimately familiar with. Piper, it seemed, had not passed this important skill on to her sister just yet.</p><p>“What’s that you’ve got there?” she called out, grabbing both the girl’s attention and the attention of half the people in the street.</p><p>The girl turned to her, surprise blending with her anger as she recognized the Vault suit. Olivia belatedly wondered what Piper had told her about the stranger in her bed, hoping it was something good. Otherwise she was very likely about to ruin a perfectly good relationship by putting her foot in her mouth. “You new to the city, lady? This is the Publick! Best newspaper in the Commonwealth!”</p><p>“Let me see that!” Olivia took a few caps from her pocket, dropping them in the small shoebox on the ground and hearing them clink off the hundreds of other caps already in the box. They might not need her help after all.</p><p>The girl handed over a copy with a grin. “The Institute is everywhere, lady. If you want to protect yourself, you need to be in the know.”</p><p>She skimmed the paper briefly, spending more time wondering how that printing press behind the girl actually worked than reading the article. Had Piper figured out how to run one by herself? Had she built it from spare parts?</p><p>Had she actually written an entire article about how the Mayor was actually a robot spy? Olivia paused, not needing to play up her surprise all that much as she adjusted her baseball cap that identified her as a city official. She wasn’t sure how this would play out, but if she knew anything about selling a news story, trying to censor it was probably the best way to start.</p><p>“You can’t print this!” she said, rounding on the girl and waving the paper in front of her for effect.</p><p>The girl’s eyes went wide, exposing the family resemblance as Olivia remembered Piper kicking and thrashing against her chains in the raider camp the day before. Apparently, that fire ran in the family. “What, you think you can stop the press?”</p><p>The box had her almost eye level with Olivia, something that was actually more intimidating than it should have been. “Of course not! But this isn’t official! It needs to go through the proper channels. This isn’t the voice of Diamond City at all.”</p><p>“It’s the voice of the people, lady. This is what people need to know about the Institute to keep themselves safe.” The girl turned away from Olivia with a scowl. “You’ve got your paper, make room for the next customers.”</p><p>“Take the rest of these papers and get rid of them!” She did her best to channel her inner overweight, corrupt Mister Monopoly, a mental image that reminded her far too much of the mayor himself. “Proper authorities will distribute this information when the people need to know. Publishing information before it’s been reviewed could cause a panic! The people won’t understand.”</p><p>Piper’s sister was no slouch and Olivia had learned a long time ago not to underestimate what children could pick up on. The Wasteland probably helped that along nicely, with the more naive kids probably ending up as dinner for Big Green’s extended family.</p><p>So the girl played it up, if in her own way. That way was mostly by looking over Olivia’s head, only giving her the most cursory and apathetic glance as she waved her newspaper at another group of people coming down the ramp. “The people have a right to know what’s going on right under their noses. There could be synths right here in Diamond City. If they’re going to be safe, they need to know.”</p><p>Olivia pretended to look irate and adjusted her hat a few more times, just to get her point across. “Fine! But I’ll be speaking to the mayor about this.”</p><p>She stalked off, not actually knowing where to go since she couldn’t very well go into the building after picking a fight with Piper’s sister, and was pleased to see a good number of customers crowding the girl’s little newspaper stall. How that had worked was beyond her. Maybe it hadn’t. The point was she had tried and, hopefully, she had not just burned a bridge she just set out the blueprints for.</p><p>The road she had chosen as her exit route unfortunately didn’t lead anywhere she wanted to go. From Publick Occurrences, the road out of town was straight and narrow, and it looked like the front was not even open. She milled around aimlessly for a few minutes before doubling back, using some of her newfangled positional authority to use the internal stadium hallways to avoid any potential awkwardness in the street.</p><p>It was a long while before she returned to Publick Occurrences, but when she returned, she was greeted with a smiling face and her bridge already half built. Piper’s sister had left her pulpit and was waiting for her when she came in the door, eyeing up a Scrooge McDuck-ian pile of caps splayed out on the floor.</p><p>“Hey! You did pretty good out there, lady!”</p><p>Olivia breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing she wanted to do was repay Piper by hurting her little sister. “Thanks. I wasn’t sure I helped all that much. Seems like you did most of it.”</p><p>“Most days, people won’t look at me except to ask for a free copy. It’s annoying, but Piper always says any publicity is good publicity. But you did great! And Piper said you saved her from a bunch of raiders. What’s your name?”</p><p>“Olivia. You can call me Liv. I was passed out upstairs, so I don’t think Piper got the chance to introduce me.”</p><p>“I wanted to wake you up, but she didn’t let me. I’m Nat.” The little girl hopped carefully around the dragon’s hoard and bounced cheerfully up to Olivia, who was now beaming. “Did you really save Piper from raiders?”</p><p>Olivia shook her head. “I think your sister would have found her way out on her own. I just helped things along, that’s all.”</p><p>“But what happened? All she told me was the stockpile was full of raiders and that you came in and rescued her! Did you fight all of them off by yourself?”</p><p>“I wish,” Olivia laughed, very happy she had not had to fight anyone off. “I just told them to let her go and they listened. I - well, it’s kind of a long story, but -”</p><p>“I want to hear it!”</p><p>Nat, not waiting for an answer, hopped up on the couch and waited to be entertained. What could Olivia do but oblige? “Alright, let’s start at the beginning…”</p><p> </p><p>It was a cold autumn day in the Commonwealth. The old world decorations seemed to take on new color, knowing in their atoms there was less than a week until Halloween. The tradition had largely died out, with there being actual monsters hiding in the shadows these days, but Piper had always quietly wondered if Diamond City was the place for it to make a comeback. There were lights, there were families, there was even some supply of candy to be handed out to happy children. She had always been busy with something else, though, and had never found the time.</p><p>This year was shaping up to be just the same, but instead of being too busy to promote the idea, she might be too dead to care if it took off.</p><p>Rarely at a loss for words, Piper’s brain had been running a cycle of obscenities while she tried to order her thoughts, finding new and inventive ways to wish misery on the mayor. Her favorites, carried on the light breeze until they were drowned out by distant gunfire, lived on only in her imagination. There was no one hear to appreciate them and a large metal barrier keeping her from acting them out.</p><p>The courtyard outside Diamond City was empty, its barricades manned only by automated turrets of dubious reliability. There were none of the usual security officers watching for danger, save those already engaged in a nearby street fight with super mutants. There would be no one here to witness Piper’s last moments, should those shots attract attention.</p><p>Taking a deep breath, Piper reached out calmly to the intercom, rested her hand on the button, and stabbed at it hard enough to risk breaking it. “Come on, Danny, open the gate. I’m standing out in the open, here!”</p><p>Danny’s voice crackled over the intercom in reply, sounding exhausted by Piper’s desire to keep living. “I’m sorry, Piper, but the mayor’s real steamed about that article you wrote, saying the whole thing is a bunch of lies.”</p><p>Of course he was angry. Now he could hardly bump off Diamond City’s favorite journalist without drawing attention! She had him checkmated! Or stalled, at least, until she could present more evidence. The battle for Diamond City against synth leadership had at last been joined!</p><p>Considering she had already been ejected from the stadium, things were looking grim for the noble side of truth. “Agh! You open this gate right now, Danny Sullivan, I live here! You can’t just… lock me out!”</p><p>All evidence to the contrary. She thought she heard Danny sigh on the other end, so she took some small satisfaction that her last moments were inconveniencing her uncaring executioner, but she would have preferred to have lived at least a few years longer. Olivia’s story wouldn’t write itself and Nat had been so excited to meet her, too. She wanted to know what was inside Vault 111, how the girl had ended up saving a raider boss’s younger sister, and if there were any pre-war caches of gumdrops hiding around the Commonwealth. Surviving on noodles and Nuka every day, a sweet tooth was as good a reason as any to keep on living.</p><p>When the speaker remained silent, Piper stared up at the massive metal plate that now covered the main entrance to Diamond City and wondered if the old super mutants had missed any secret doors or cracks large enough for a grown woman to slip through. If only she hadn’t patched that hole in the back lot, the one covered by an old bookcase. She should have kept it under her hat, saved it for when she got kicked out of the city. The look on McDonough’s face when she popped back up inside the walls would have been priceless.</p><p>She had started looking for handholds to climb over the top of the wall when she heard someone clear their throat behind her. “Excuse me.”</p><p>Piper turned, expecting to see a lost trader or maybe a very polite raider, and did a double take. Standing in front of her was a woman so covered in bullets, bombs, and body armor that she looked capable of starting a war and winning it by dinner. In her moment of stunned silence, some part of Piper’s brain noticed that the gunfire down the street had stopped. It also noticed that this woman was carrying a smoking assault rifle and was more than capable of putting the two together.</p><p>What stopped Piper from saying anything was not the getup of a hardened wastelander but the blue Vault suit underneath. She couldn’t see the numbers on the back but she already had a feeling it was the same one three times.</p><p>But there was plenty of time to worry about that later. “Hey. You want in to Diamond City, right?”</p><p>The heavily-armed woman arched an eyebrow but nodded. “Yeah. You live here?”</p><p>“Shh.” She hurriedly put her hands out, unsure if she had actually broken the intercom button or not. A lie formed quickly, something that would get Danny to open the gates and let her back inside, and so did the same words Olivia had used on her just a day before. “Play along.”</p><p>The Vault dweller’s eyes flicked around the courtyard as though looking for someone to explain the joke, but as McDonough had ordered, no one was there to enlighten her.</p><p>So on came the lie. “What’s that, you’re a trader up from Quincy? And you have enough food and supplies to stock the general store for a month?!”</p><p> </p><p>“So that’s when I saw Piper. The raiders had her chained to the wall, dozens of them watching her. I thought they had taken her prisoner.” Olivia gave Nat a knowing look and the little girl leaned in even closer, grinning ear to ear. “Oh, how wrong I was. So the raider boss asks me for anything, says I saved her sister and could stay there forever. Free food, protection, anything I could ever want.”</p><p>“So what did you do?” Nat asked with a giggle.</p><p>“Well, I said they could pay me back by giving me just one thing. And I pointed to Piper and said ‘let her go.’”</p><p>The door to Publick Occurrences swung open with a squeal and the woman herself came striding in with a loud sigh. Something in Olivia’s brain knew immediately that meant ‘long day, don’t ask’ but the rest of her was too engrossed in finishing the story for Nat to care. That sigh of exhaustion quickly faded when Piper noticed the mass of caps still splayed out on the floor and stopped, wide-eyed, just inside the door</p><p>“Why’d you pick her?” Nat asked, still giggling and looking with disgust at her older sister. “You could have had anything.”</p><p>Piper responded with a look employed by older sister’s everywhere. Olivia had only ever been on the receiving end of it, but it was good to see it again, so much so that she forgot what she was going to say. It was going to take some getting used to, being thrown so far forward in time. Being around another family and seeing life go on in its tired old ways felt good, though, and she almost hesitated to tell Piper that she was leaving her home in the next few days.</p><p>None of this she verbalized to Nat. Instead, she listened quietly as Piper hit back in the traditional, family-friendly manner. “Watch it, kiddo, or the next time we’re short on caps I’m selling you to the circus. World’s biggest mole rat, come and see!”</p><p>“Maybe you should be the one getting sold! Look! All these caps came in just this afternoon.” Nat folded her arms defiantly, hopping to her feet and puffing out her chest. Olivia was still unfamiliar with the exact economic value of a bottle cap, but this definitely beat the wages she had been offered.</p><p>The caps gleamed like silver coins in Piper’s eyes despite her efforts to look unimpressed. “I told you it was a good title,” she said, stubbornly keeping her chin up.</p><p>“They weren’t selling that well until Liv came and tried to shut me down.”</p><p>Nat giggled again, looking happily at her while Piper tilted her head. “Vault dweller tries to shut down the press? What on earth gave you that idea?”</p><p>It took her a moment, but her eyes soon flicked to the pile of clothes on the table, the peacoat still around Olivia’s shoulders, and finally to the baseball cap. Olivia sat up straight, preening. “I got a job.”</p><p>“You - what? That - how? Maintenance?”</p><p>Olivia suppressed a comment about being better on the page than in person as Piper fumbled her words. “The hot water went out after you left. I did some work as a plumber before the war, so I thought I’d give it a try. I wouldn’t have said anything, but apparently the last guy retired early.”</p><p>“That’s one way to put it,” Piper snorted. “More like he got put out to pasture. Blue, that’s great news! Here for a day and you’re already doing more for the city than I’ve managed in six years.”</p><p>Nat sniffed and looked put off by the comment but Olivia just sat there, flushed and awkward. She had never been very good at taking compliments. “Thanks. I don’t know if it’ll last, but at least now I can pay you back for the clothes! And for letting me stay here. I really don’t know what I would have done otherwise.”</p><p>Piper shrugged, magnanimity in red. “It was the least I could do. Really.”</p><p>“Yeah, Liv was just telling me how you were chained up by raiders and she had to come save you!”</p><p>“Oh, really?” Piper gave her a playful glare. “You got there just as I was about to make my dramatic escape.”</p><p>Now it was Olivia’s turn to laugh, but from what Piper had told her, that was not far from the truth. If she hadn’t come back with Lily, Piper would have talked her way right out the door by that evening. In fact, if Olivia hadn’t said anything, her showing up would have just gotten Piper killed. She had not so much saved her life as not ended it, and that wasn’t worth all that much by her own estimate.</p><p>Lucky for her, Piper disagreed. “Anyway, finish the story. I’ll pick up the mess you made and get dinner started. What were you doing with all these on the floor, lying in them? Making cap angels?”</p><p>Nat ignored her, hopping back on the couch to listen to the end of Olivia’s tale. She made sure to embellish the way Piper had all but freed herself, something that was not all that hard to do, and added some parts where Piper talked their way out of the stockpile or spotted raider ambushes in the streets for good measure.</p><p>Dinner looked surprisingly familiar. She hadn’t noticed it at fist, but Piper had come home with a brown bag filled with slabs of meat that she cooked over the hot plate. Nat was excited enough to make it apparent this was not the normal fare, something that made Olivia wonder what meals consisted of when the paper wasn’t selling well. More than once she offered to give Piper something for her trouble and more than once she was shot down before she could even finish asking. The woman was stubborn, that was for sure.</p><p>When it came time to turn in, Piper lingered near the stairs, watching Olivia for a few moments and making it very apparent there was something on her mind. When Olivia finally caught on, she made her way upstairs to where she had woken up this morning.</p><p>“Hey, I know you’re still getting your bearings, but I need to ask you something.” Her voice was quiet enough that Nat, even just a floor below, would not have been able to hear unless she was trying to eavesdrop.</p><p>Olivia took the hint, silently bidding her continue.</p><p>“Did you meet anyone else in the Vault? Last night you said everyone was frozen and you didn’t see anyone else in there.”</p><p>The question was enough to set Olivia’s heart racing, as much out of fear as excitement. “There was someone else, I think,” she whispered, struggling to keep her voice low. “I never saw them, but they killed a lot of raiders. The ones I met outside the Vault were terrified of her.”</p><p>Piper’s knowing look weighed the scales a bit more toward fear. “You don’t say. Well, I don’t mean to alarm you, but she’s in town, and she looks every bit as scary as you made her out to be.”</p><p>Unsure of how to take that, Olivia just nodded. “Okay.”</p><p>“She seems like a good person,” Piper said quickly, noting with ease the worry that was now seeping into her bones. “She’s looking for her son. She got me back into the city - didn’t want to mention that at dinner, I’ll tell you another time - and went straight to Nick’s office looking for a detective. I don’t know, Blue, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t invite a really deadly raider into my home. But the last Vault dweller turned out alright, so, what’s one more?”</p><p>Again, Olivia failed to handle the compliment well, this time almost missing it for thinking about this new person. “Yeah, I - I’m sorry, I don’t know her. All I know is she’s a lot better than me at killing things. And people. And, uh, thanks. Even if you would have been fine without me.”</p><p>Piper grinned. “What can I say? I’m a lucky gal.”</p><p>That was a mantle Olivia would not mind passing on, if she was being honest, and Piper seemed to wear it well.</p><p>“Did you, you know, want to meet her the next time she’s around? I don’t know if she’ll make time in the next few days, but we can always top by your new place when she does. Well, she can, I might have to wear a bigger hat. Folks don’t like me much in the upper stands.”</p><p>“Oh, God, that’s the rich part of town, isn’t it?”</p><p>“Yes, Blue, it is.” Piper put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, looking her in the eyes and giving her a pained smile. “I’ll always remember you like this, just so you know, who you were before you turned into a stadium snob.”</p><p>Olivia rolled her eyes and adjusted her hat, still worn mostly to keep her unruly hair in line. “Thanks, that means a lot.”</p><p>“Mhm. Don’t let it go to your head.” Piper surprised her, then, pulling her in for a hug Olivia desperately needed. She would never call Piper normal, but next to everyone else she had met so far, she was the most normal friend she could have asked for. “And don’t be a stranger, alright? I think Nat’s taken a shine to you and the last thing I want is her spending time up with your people way up there.”</p><p>Olivia squeezed back before letting herself be pushed away. “She’s a good kid. I’ll stop by when I can. Maybe I’ll buy dinner next time.”</p><p>Piper raised an eyebrow at that. “I like this arrangement. Feeding Nat on McDonough’s caps sounds like a good plan to me.”</p><p>Like compliments, thanks had always been something Olivia struggled with, and so she stared awkwardly at the floor for a moment before managing a thin smile. “Thanks again, Piper. For everything.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, don’t get mushy on me. Jeez, you let someone save your life once and they never get over it.” Piper swatted her on the shoulder and gestured toward the couch. “Just drop by now and again and we’ll call it even, okay? Now shoo, I’ve got questions to go over. I need to make another Vault dweller cry.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. There's Always a Story</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Piper makes a deal with Nora and sets up an interview. Nat joins Olivia for a day of work. Olivia meets the Mayor.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What do you mean, he’s gone?”</p><p>“His secretary told me he disappeared chasing some kidnapped girl,” Nora said, plainly on edge and in need of sleep. It was honestly a miracle she hadn’t barged in last night, interrupting what had actually been an incredibly peaceful night with Nat and Olivia.</p><p>Piper put her fingers to her forehead and sighed. She had hoped this morning would produce something other than more grey hairs. “Oh, Nicky, what have you gotten yourself into this time?”</p><p>She had actually just learned Nora’s name this morning after being accosted by her in the market. Maybe pre-war folks weren’t big on social niceties. “The guy he was going after was named Skinny. The secretary said he was holed up in some Vault.”</p><p>“Did Ellie say anything else? Anything about the girl he kidnapped?”</p><p>Nora seemed to ignore the polite addition of the secretary’s name and shook her head. “No. But I’m going to head out there and get him back. I need him to help me find my son.”</p><p>Piper felt herself start chewing her lip but declined to correct the habit. She knew why Nora had come to her with this even if she had not yet broached the question. And if Nick was in danger, she wanted to help get him out of it. God only knew how many times he had done the same for her. She was less seeing the bait dangled in front of her and more tasting it on her tongue at this point, so she decided to cut to the chase. “I’ll tell you what. You come inside, agree to do an interview with me, and I’ll come with you, watch your back while you get used to the world above ground.”</p><p>Not that she needed it. Watching Nora’s back would probably be something done more in the literal than the protective sense, seeing how the woman carried herself, but that was also not something Piper minded all that much. She liked to think of herself as having a pretty good read on people, and Nora seemed like a decent woman, if one that had been pushed to the ragged edge of her sanity. If she was right, the Wasteland started to look less like a minefield and more like a treasure map. There were so many places she wanted to go, so many mysteries she wanted to solve. They could find the lost treasure of Jamaica Plain, learn the truth of Easy City Downs, investigate the strange radio signals coming from Nuka World, and a thousand other things Piper could never do on her own.</p><p>“Sure. You know this Nick guy, right?”</p><p>So much for a little friendly gratitude. “Guy might not be the right word. You’ll see when you meet him, but he’s a synth.”</p><p>She expected some of Olivia’s confusion, but either Nora had encountered them in the Wasteland already or she simply didn’t care to ask. “Great.”</p><p>“Yeah. Great,” Piper echoed, looking at her feet and wondering if this was really the best arrangement to be making. She’d gone into worse places with worse help, but few had been this impersonal. It felt like talking to a protectron.</p><p>Nora paused, and for just a moment, that intensity dimmed. “Sorry. I’m just - I need to find my son, Piper. He’s just a baby. If Nick Valentine is the best chance I have of finding him, I don’t care where he is, I’m going to get him out. And if it’s an interview you want, I’ll give you as many as you want if you help me get him back. He’s all I have left.”</p><p>She tried to imagine what she would say if she was in the same position, if someone had taken Nat from her, and found that intensity almost underwhelming. She would have ripped the world apart to find her little sister. “I understand.”</p><p>“Thanks.” Nora smiled, thin-lipped but no less sincere for that. “Are you ready to go?”</p><p>“Yeah, just let me take care of a few things. I’ll meet you by the gate in a few minutes, half an hour at the most.”</p><p>She hadn’t wanted to go back out into the world again so soon after what happened with Red’s gang, but she almost felt as though she had no choice. Ignoring the interview and the chance for further adventure, this was Nick Valentine they were talking about. If he had gotten himself into trouble, she would not be the one who stood by and let him find his own way out. He was too good a friend for that.</p><p>Which meant she needed to find Nat and tell her she would be home alone for a few more days. She proved easy to spot, still perched on her box outside the Publick, handing out copies of The Synthetic Truth to anyone willing to buy. Piper watched her harangue a few newcomers, doing her best to put the fear of the Institute in them. The girl enjoyed that part of the job far too much. She was also far too good at it.</p><p>When there was a lull in the traffic, Piper made her way up to the front porch, smiling when Nat caught sight of her and happily shouted for her. “Piper!”</p><p>“Hey, kiddo. How are the paper sales?”</p><p>“We’ve had a lot more interest today. I think Liv really helped. But the motor was making some crazy sounds this morning. It’s going to go if we don’t replace it.”</p><p>Piper smirked at her little sister’s serious business face. “Aw, come on, you’ve been saying that for months and the old gal hasn’t given up yet.”</p><p>“You weren’t here when it was printing the last ones. If we don’t fix it, it’s going to set the house on fire.”</p><p>Nat turned to regard the printer suspiciously while Piper quickly examined all the flammable objects within reach of any potential flames. Their house looked, in the kindest way possible, like a giant tin can, so unless the side of it melted clean off, she was fairly certain they would not burn to death in their sleep. The newspaper stand outside, however, was mostly wood and stocked with paper.</p><p>Maybe she had a point after all. Piper made a note to check the motor again when she got back and hoped it would hold out at least that long. “You worry too much. Listen, I’m going to be heading out again. Just got a lead on a new story. You think you can hold down the fort here for a while?”</p><p>She tried not to notice the disappointment on Nat’s face the same way Nat tried not to let it show. “Of course. I’m not a little kid.”</p><p>“Yeah, but you’re still shorter than me, so that’s how I’m going to treat you. Have Nina over if you want and find Arturo if you need anything, okay? He still owes me for the Cricket incident.”</p><p>He actually owed her nothing, but that was hardly the point. Nat’s eyes briefly lit up as she recovered. “What’s the lead?”</p><p>“Sounds like Nick’s gone missing. There’s someone new in town, a vault dweller that’s looking for him, and if I go help her out, she’ll give us an exclusive interview.”</p><p>“An exclusive interview with the only newspaper in Diamond City?” Nat raised an eyebrow and adopted a look of condescending patience, a look Piper could only hope was reciprocated by her schoolteacher. Before Piper could properly reply, Nat shrugged it all off. “That’s fine. I guess it’s good you’re going out with a vault dweller this time instead of waiting for one to rescue you on their own.”</p><p>Piper scoffed, refusing to be chastised by someone too short to reach the hot plate without a box. “It’ll be fine. We’ll be back in a few days. It’ll be good for circulation, you’ll see.”</p><p>Nat nodded but had already turned her attention elsewhere, doing her best to grab someone off the street and pull the caps from their pocket by determination alone. Watching it happen, Piper felt something begin to nag at her. It was obvious that the girl was upset but right now she didn’t know what to do about it. This was something she had to do.</p><p>She forced herself to brush it off, filing it away as something to sit down and talk about once she got home, once Nick was safe and she had another story waiting to hit the streets. Once she was sure there would be food on the table, she could sit down and rest a bit.</p><p>Nora was waiting for her outside the city gates, stalking from street to street and looking off into the distance, rifle on her shoulder like she was waiting for a super mutant ambush. Piper loosened her own pistol in her holster, the motion as familiar as it was uncomfortable. This new vault dweller was a terror, according to the security officers she had spoken to, clearing out an entire apartment complex on her own while they had been pinned down and waiting for backup. She had just rushed in, invincible, tossing mutants from the scaffolding and not even stopping to talk afterward except to ask directions.</p><p>“You ready to go?” Piper asked as she reached her.</p><p>Adjusting the thick brown coat she wore one last time, Nora gave her a look of unsettling intensity. The old world still clung to her the same way it did to Olivia, but the two could not have been more different in how they wore it. Olivia had wrapped hers around her like a black veil to a funeral, announcing her grief even as she hid behind it, but if she was standing beside the coffin, Nora was trying to claw her way out of it. If she lost her son, there was no life left for her, and Piper shuddered to think of all this hatred being pointed somewhere else.</p><p>Pure murder softened just enough to show the person underneath as she nodded. “Yeah. Stay close and keep quiet. I’ll go ahead.”</p><p>She did not wait for any words of agreement, just started stalking her way out of the courtyard and into the Wasteland. Piper chanced one last look back at Diamond City before following her into the morning light. Nat would be fine. She would go to school, go home with Nina, and have a few days to herself. That was all. She had done it before and, as much as Piper hated it, she would probably have to do it again and again and again.</p><p> </p><p>Nat cut school.</p><p>It wasn’t that it was boring, she just didn’t feel like going. They were supposed to be going over to the lab by the Dugout Inn, the SCIENCE! Center, and learning about what things used to look like before the war. How did the bombs change the world? Why had some things gotten bigger while others had just died out?</p><p>She had a hard time imagining flies smaller than she was. Sure, she had seen baby bloatflies before, but they got big so fast and she couldn’t think of it being any other way. The same went for roaches and bloodbugs and stingwings and every animal that had gotten a second head after the old world died. That was weird, too, imagining radstags with one head. They would look so… small. Narrow. How many legs were they supposed to have, anyway?</p><p>Nina had gone to class and was probably wondering where her friend was, so that left Nat selling papers until her pile ran out. She told herself the motor would probably go so she shouldn’t print anything else. It was a good excuse to lock the door to the Publick and go walking around the city, looking for something to do. Piper was always talking about stories being right under their noses.</p><p>What about right under their feet? Nat found herself walking over to the maintenance doors and was surprised when no one stopped her from going in. Security must have been somewhere else. Through the heavy door was a concrete hall filled with hissing pipes and dim lights in metal cages. It looked like the hallway that led into the jail. She hated that hallway, too.</p><p>She stopped at an intersection with stairs that led down and thought she heard someone at the bottom. She thought this was where Liv worked, now. Maybe she had gotten it wrong.</p><p>The stairs led her to another door that opened up into a room filled with big metal vats that hummed and hissed and blinked from inside iron fences. The room also had a lot of generators with blinking yellow lights and other things she didn’t recognize. It wasn’t the kind of place she wanted to spend her afternoon.</p><p>But she did recognize a voice coming from near the metal vats. “What do you think, huh? Pretty good, right?”</p><p>Some of the vats hissed and she didn’t hear anyone talking back as she wandered forward. It hadn’t occurred to her that Liv might be busy. She had sort of imagined her working on boilers with a wrench, turning bolts and pushing buttons until the day ended. It made sense that she would tell other people what to do, though. She was the boss.</p><p>She heard something tap against the floor as Liv groaned. “Come on, it’s a great idea. I don’t know how bad winter gets here, but I’ve heard so much about nuclear winter that it can’t possibly be good. If I can fix up some of these pipes, maybe get someone to patch the holes in the walls, we can actually keep this place pretty well heated when it snows.”</p><p>Nat perked up at that. Winter was terrible at home and she swore the walls kept the heat out more than they kept it in. That was why Piper had bought them both so many coats.</p><p>She heard Liv moving something around on the ground. Maybe she could help with this. Keeping everyone warm was important and - “Oh my God!”</p><p>Skittering on the floor was a massive radroach, bigger than any she had ever seen, its body glowing a bright and horrible green. It turned to her and hissed, its wings fluttering as it raised its head to look her dead in the eye.</p><p>Before she could scream, Liv turned and shouted at the monster “Hey! Bad! Leave her alone!”</p><p>The creature looked back at Liv and Nat watched in horror as it turned on her. She had nothing to defend herself. There were no guards, no guns, nothing around to help her. It hissed at her, wings folding back on its body. It was going to kill her.</p><p>But then it just… sat? Laid down? Liv walked up to it and pointed at it. “Don’t scare people. You keep doing that and someone’s going to squish you and then what are you going to do?”</p><p>Nat watched as the bug chittered unhappily at Liv, looked back at her, and finally went scuttling around behind Liv’s legs.</p><p>Liv turned to her and smiled. “Sorry. He isn’t good with people.”</p><p>“Is that - is that a pet radroach?” Nat stammered out.</p><p>“Yeah, something like that.” Liv turned back and actually reached down, patting the thing on the head. It made a gurgling noise and raised itself up to push against her hand as she did and Nat felt her mouth falling open. “I guess it’s not normal to have them as pets but he was going to eat me otherwise, so this seemed like a better option. I call him Big Green.”</p><p>The roach chittered and lowered itself back to the floor after Olivia finished patting it. She swore it stared at her a moment, eyeing her up like a snack, before scuttling off into the pipes. She couldn’t help but watch it go, staring into the dark to see where it would come from next. That’s what they did, after all. Or what they were supposed to do.</p><p>“Is he friendly?”</p><p>“Hasn’t tried to bite anyone yet,” Liv said cheerfully. “Want to say hi to him?”</p><p>Nat’s eyes widened. What kind of a question was that?!</p><p>Liv whistled, settling herself down on the floor as somewhere in the dark Big Green was scuttling his way back to them. She pulled something from her pocket and held it out to Nat. It was a snack cake.</p><p>“Don’t give it to him all at once,” Liv warned as the giant roach came back into the light. “I’m trying to watch his weight and you’ll probably get more enjoyment from it than he will.”</p><p>Big Green stopped about five feet away from her, testing the air and looking at her expectantly. It should have been running at her, mouth open, trying to eat the cake along with half her arm, but it wasn’t. It was waiting, looking from her to Liv and back over and over.</p><p>Nat slowly unwrapped the foil, broke a bit off the cake, and tossed it across the room.</p><p>And the roach caught it before it hit the ground. It pounced, wings buzzing as it shot up into the air to catch the falling food. Nat let out an involuntary yelp of surprise as it did, stepping back on instinct from the creature as it turned to her, waiting for her to toss the next handful.</p><p>She did, and again it caught it in midair.</p><p>“That’s amazing!”</p><p>Liv chuckled. “Eh, he’s alright. But he’s a good listener and hasn’t tried to eat my coat yet.”</p><p>Nat walked over to sit down beside Liv, tossing more crumbs to the roach as she did. She could hardly believe her eyes. She just kept grabbing more bits off the cake and tossing them to the little monster that happily skittered around the floor, cleaning up every last speck of sugary goodness it could find.</p><p>“How did you find him?”</p><p>“He found me, actually. I woke up in the vault after everyone else was gone.” Liv picked out her own snack cake and began eating it, tossing a few bits to Big Green as she chewed. “I thought he was going to eat me. He was hissing and standing on a table looking very intimidating - yes, you were very scary - and then I remembered I had food on me. Two-hundred-year-old chocolate or freshly-thawed human? I’d say he made the right choice. I probably would have tasted awful.”</p><p>Big Green chittered as Nat began munching on her own food, looking between the two of them and waiting for someone to throw him something tasty. Liv flicked a few more bits of cake at him, grumbling that he was more leech than roach, whatever that meant. She actually got kind of caught up in what she was doing, forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be somewhere else.</p><p>“So what brings you into my office this morning?”</p><p>Nat stopped eating long enough to give Big Green another bit of food. “Didn’t feel like going to school.”</p><p>“Hey, me too! And look where that got me! I outlived my whole class.” Nat looked up to see Liv smiling. “What were you supposed to be learning about today?”</p><p>She actually felt herself perking up a bit at that, remembering how excited she had been just this morning. “We were going to visit the science center. They were going to let us use the ion chambers to measure radiation.”</p><p>Liv’s eyebrows went up. “That was not what I expected.”</p><p>“The school here has been trying different things with us every year. Last year they wanted us all to learn about farming. This summer they took us to the water treatment plant and made us learn about filtering for three months. It was so boring.”</p><p>“They did that for us too, back in the day. I said the exact same thing.”</p><p>“But this time we were going to actually look at radiation - like, actually look at it! That’s so cool! It’s everywhere and it made everything the way it is and we can actually see it!”</p><p>Nat again looked back to Liv, having lost herself in her own excitement, and saw her shaking her head. “That is pretty amazing. I’d love to see this science center, but I’d probably knock something over. I’m better off staying down here with the boiling water and the big roaches. That’s more my speed.”</p><p>She made keeping the city’s water running sound so boring. That couldn’t be how she really felt. She had a cool job like Piper, except she didn’t have to go out for weeks at a time. She got to stay here and play with Big Green.</p><p>And it probably did get a little boring. There weren’t any super mutants or anything down here. Maybe she would uncover a conspiracy to poison the city’s water. Or, actually, that would probably be at the treatment plant. But it could be here. Maybe the mayor was planning on turning all the boilers off during the next blizzard and trying to freeze everyone. Except, the only ones who got the heat from here were the rich people in the upper stands, so that didn’t make sense. But there had to be a story eventually. There was always a story.</p><p>“So Piper left again?”</p><p>“Yeah. She went out with that other vault dweller. They were going to save Nick.”</p><p>Liv nodded slowly. “And you’re here all by yourself?”</p><p>“I’m not a little kid. I know how to lock a door. Sometimes Piper needs to go chase down a story and someone needs to stay here and watch the house.” She watched Liv nod and back off a bit. Maybe things were different before the war and girls were kept inside longer. Maybe Liv was just old enough to live alone back then. She was probably about as old as Piper, though, so that would have been really weird. “She’ll be back soon. And if I need anything I can ask Nina and Arturo.”</p><p>Hearing other names seemed to make Liv happy. “Oh, that’s good. Well, if you’re staying at home tonight, I could always come by and keep you company. I could bring dinner, too. They just paid me this morning.”</p><p>Nat sat up excitedly. “Can you cook?”</p><p>Liv beamed. “Not at all, but that’s never stopped me before!”</p><p>“You’re worse than Piper,” she giggled. “If she comes back to us burning down the house, I’m going to say it was you.”</p><p>“Go for it. I’ve got my own place, remember? Don’t know what you’re going to do.”</p><p>The rest of the afternoon passed peacefully enough, with Nat hanging around while Liv did her job. It mostly consisted of wandering around, making sure everything was in working order, and answering calls on a little radio they had given her. Liv was actually really funny and she told herself that this was much more interesting than going to school. She was learning things here, anyway. Liv spent a lot of time trying to work out where all the pipes went, where some were blocked, complaining a lot about broken vents that were going to let more of Big Green’s cousins in.</p><p>Big Green followed them around too but stayed mostly close to Liv, sometimes clinging to her like a backpack. She groaned and complained but never shooed him away, letting the little monster ride along with her while she took notes in a small book. Whenever she asked what Liv was doing, she always made it sound so boring even though it was so important. It was weird, but she kind of liked it. It made everything seem calm, easy, doable.</p><p>When the sun finally went down, Nat went back home and Liv went to go talk to other people about what she had been doing all day. She said she’d be around in a few hours, so that gave Nat time to sit down and draw until dinner. It was nice, not having to cook for herself. She was just going to buy noodles or something, so this was definitely a step up in her book.</p><p>Maybe Liv’s home wouldn’t be ready until Piper got back. She hoped not. She liked having someone else around. And the fact that she had a cool pet radroach definitely helped.</p><p> </p><p> “Now, I know you’re new to the city, but I must say you are truly Diamond City material, young lady.”</p><p>As a rule, Olivia had always been wary of men who called her young lady, doubly so when they were paying her a compliment, but she had never been subjected to it by someone who looked quite so much like Mr Peanut. She found, perhaps predictably, that it didn’t help much.</p><p>“Thank you,” she managed, smiling and nodding and thinking about dinner. “I’m just glad I can help out around here.”</p><p>That much was true enough. If she was going to live in this dusty, demolished future, she wanted to do it in a place with hot water and a solid roof. She would also prefer it to be in a place without too many raiders, though she had already found herself willing to compromise on that point. The end of the world only drove home the old adage that beggars should not be choosers, particularly when begging for their lives.</p><p>She had to admit, if only to herself, that she would rather have been dealing with Nightshade at the moment.</p><p>The mayor stood beside a large wooden desk that looked far too polished to be sitting in a place like this. In fact, the entire office looked like something out of a more familiar time, with a plush couch and beautiful carpet covering most of the floor. Even the terminal looked polished. “As I said, you have been doing much more to help us than most who come to our fine city. You have not only proven yourself a valuable addition to our city, but a good judge of character, besides.”</p><p>Olivia did her best not to laugh, considering where her mind had just been wandering. “What do you mean?”</p><p>“I heard about what you did in the market. That damned newspaper is just going to get people killed! The lies and slander grow in every issue and more and more people are dying because of it.” The mayor shook his head and stomped about, gesticulating in a way somewhat similar to Piper’s though far less charming. “Standing up to that rabble-rouser is something all our good citizens could learn from. I truly cannot thank you enough.”</p><p>She did her best to keep a straight face. “It was the least I could do.”</p><p>“I admit, I had my concerns when you brought her back to our doorstep, but I suppose you were only doing what you believed was the right thing. Being from beneath the earth, you could not have known how much trouble she has caused around here, how much unrest has been sewn by her and that damned paper of hers.”</p><p>That, too, was the truth, though what the mayor missed was how much faster Olivia would have undone the chains if she had known. Or so she liked to think. She was grateful to Piper and especially to Nat for giving her a family again, even if she was just the weird aunt who came to visit every Christmas, but this was starting to sound serious. Piper had printed some damning accusations in that article and if people really believed their neighbors were Institute spies, well you didn’t need to have grown up during the war to know how easy it was to hate anyone you didn’t know.</p><p>“Are people really dying because of it?”</p><p>“I’m afraid so,” the mayor said, sighing and leaning against his desk. “The paper has everyone up in arms about the Institute. Do not misunderstand me, I know their influence is a terrifying thing and their kidnappings are something that every Diamond City Security officer is fully committed to preventing and investigating, but that paper is causing more problems than it solves.”</p><p>As much as she wanted to hear Piper’s side of this, the woman was out doing God-knows-what with the oldest person on the planet. Olivia refused to acknowledge that she was running a close second. “But it has solved problems?”</p><p>The mayor gave her a look that went from tolerant to somewhat suspicious. “A few. Why?”</p><p>“I only ask because I didn’t think to find a newspaper out here. No offense or anything, but it doesn’t seem like the most important thing in the world after clean water and shelter.”</p><p>“True enough, but the voice and rights of the people are just as important.” The mayor tugged on his lapels and settled back like a fat and happy Batman villain. “There were a few things that have helped the people. There was some nastiness surrounding price gouging and a ring of caravans that had to be broken up. We’ve brought in quite a bit more money since that was cleared up. And then there was a bit of business involving a nearby marsh, somewhere up north of here. Bloodbugs had been using it to lay eggs in the millions and if we hadn’t cleared that out, well, it would have been a hard summer to put it lightly.”</p><p>Things were never calm anymore, it seemed. Olivia made a note to ask Piper about her greatest exploits another time. She was better when it came to telling stories.</p><p>“But that’s all in the past,” McDonough said as he wobbled to his feet, grabbing something off the desk as he did. “I called you here to thank you for your service in more than just words. I have here the key to one of our nicest residences. You’ll find it near the upper stands. Address is on the key, but folks around here call it the Billboard. But don’t worry, you won’t have any blinding lights shining in your windows!”</p><p>Practiced laughter at bad jokes was something that never went out of fashion, it seemed, and Olivia took the key with the gracious smile of a woman longing to leave the room. “I look forward to moving in. Thank you so much for everything.”</p><p>“Think nothing of it, young lady. Welcome to Diamond City! I do hope you’ll find a home here.”</p><p>Having never once called her by her name, the mayor bid her farewell and called for his secretary, allowing Olivia to make her quick escape. She pocketed the key, reminding herself to stop by the market and look for something like a keychain. At least her new coat had pockets, though, as did her pants. The future was not all that bleak when she remembered that.</p><p>But she did not stay in the upper stands. She wandered around briefly, finding her home and making sure the key fit in the door before returning to the hard-packed dirt of the baseball diamond. As much as she disliked the mayor, she was already beginning to fall in love with his city. The neon lights above the Power Noodles stand illuminated what must have been hundreds of figures gathered near what used to be the pitcher’s mound, talking and laughing and making the whole place look like a pre-war festival.</p><p>She took a moment, stopped near the intersection that would take her to Publick Occurrences, and watched the crowd mill about. It looked so normal. She had to remind herself that clutched in her left hand were the remains of some strange, two-headed monster cow, which was decided not normal, but for a moment that was the only thing tethering her to this new reality.</p><p>After a few moments, one of the security officers invited her to join the crowd and she was forced to pass on account of a prior engagement, gesturing toward Publick Occurrences with the old Blast Radius board game she had found at Myrna’s. She had somewhere she needed to be.</p>
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<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Guaranteed Delivery</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Piper accompanies Nora to where Nick Valentine is being held. Olivia gets the opportunity to complete her last delivery.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She had known Nora was capable. From the moment she had laid eyes on her, she had known this woman was someone the Commonwealth would remember for generations. Desperately searching for her kidnapped son, she had stood up for the free press, stepped in to save bystanders from super mutants, and was now about to free Nick Valentine from Skinny Malone’s gang.</p><p>Now, as Piper stared down at the bloody bodies littering the once-pristine Vault floor, she wondered if this would be someone they spent lifetimes trying to forget.</p><p>There was an understanding, out in the Wasteland, as to how things were done. Most raiders were desperate but reasonable, in their own way, and willing to live and let live in turn. Simple highwaymen that took caps and sent you on your way. Sometimes they roughed you up, sometimes they didn’t, but you mostly got out alive. Even super mutants had moments of reasoning, though they were few and far between and mostly ended with the human as an unrecognizable red mess. Of course, Piper could attest that even this rule had its exceptions, but they were few and determined never to speak of the experience again.</p><p>There was really only one inviolable rule in the world, as far as she could tell, and it was staring up at her through sightless eyes. She stared back at the dead triggerman, this one wearing a bright green tie with the usual black and white formalwear that the gang was so fond of. It didn’t exactly fit with the rest of the ensemble, despite the matching shamrocked pinned to a bowler a few feet from his head, but Piper found it only made the whole thing that much sadder.</p><p>She looked up to find Nora going through one of the dead man’s pockets. It was the most attention she had paid to any of them since this started, when Piper had asked “What’s the plan, Nora?”</p><p>And she had answered by loading her rifle and going straight in.</p><p>Seeing Nora finish pulling ammunition and spare caps from the dead man’s pockets, tossing aside a small, worthless notebook that contained the last impression of his soul upon this earth, she knew she had to say something. Another of this Vault’s many, many stairwells lay ahead, giving them a bit of privacy, and the ringing in her ears was slowly fading as the last of the gunfire had quieted. No one was left to complain about the noise. Piper followed quickly, catching up to her as the stairs twisted down to the next floor.</p><p>“Why’d you do that?”</p><p>“They shot first,” Nora answered, not even breaking stride.</p><p>“We could have reasoned with them, or lied to them, made up some names and a story. We didn’t have to just… kill them.”</p><p>“That was their choice. I heard you trying to talk them down. I gave them a chance to drop their guns. They didn’t. That’s their choice.”</p><p>Piper quick-stepped her way to Nora’s side, stopping her before she reached the next landing. “When we were outside, they weren’t shooting at us. They were pointing guns at us, but that’s Commonwealth for good morning. We could have talked our way through.”</p><p>For a moment, Nora looked ready to push her way past her, bullying her way to where Nick was being held, but she stopped just shy of physically pushing her over. Nora towered a good two or three inches over Piper’s head, a height exaggerated when standing almost within arm’s reach. “Tell me a story, then.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Go on. Pretend I’m one of these triggerman idiots. Convince me to open the door and let you in instead of just shooting you in the chest and throwing you in with Valentine.”</p><p>She pushed her mounting regret at coming here aside, focusing on making up a story and nothing else. She had always had a good read on people and she knew when someone was at the end of their rope. The rope that Nora clung to was two centuries old and frayed down to its last fibers, but it had not snappd yet. Or, at least, she hoped not.</p><p>“I’m from Diamond City -” Piper had barely gotten the words out before Nora put her hand out, fingers pressed to her forehead like a gun. At least it wasn’t the real thing. “A friend from the old neighborhood where Nick and Skinny met. They’ve got history there. That’s why Nick’s still alive. Someone in Diamond City hired some Gunners to come clear them out, get Nick back when the public made a fuss. I’m here trying to smooth things over, give Skinny a chance to get out ahead of it.”</p><p>Nora’s eyes fixed on Piper’s, no hint of emotion on her face. Piper refused to blink.</p><p>Until Nora’s thumb pressed down on top of her other fingers. “Bang.”</p><p>“What -”</p><p>“Do they know you from the old neighborhood? Or do they know you from the new one?” Nora brought her fingers up and flicked the cap still on Piper’s head. She knew she shouldn’t have worn the damn thing but she had been in such a rush to leave she hadn’t changed clothes before hitting the road. “At best, they tell you to scram and lock that big Vault door behind them. What then?”</p><p>“You’ve got your Pip-Boy.”</p><p>“And when the door grinds open, what then? You tell them you’re selling cookies? No, they shoot you and then we’re right back here but you’re hiding track marks under those sleeves after I’ve shoved a dozen stimpacks in you to stop the bleeding. That’s assuming they don’t hit anything important and your little sister doesn’t get a quick promotion to head writer.”</p><p>Piper resisted the urge to slap her across the face, but only just. “So we just do it your way? Go in shooting and anyone in the way doesn’t get to go home?”</p><p>“They put their guns down, they go home just fine. But they didn’t. They never do. I shouldn’t be telling you this. This is your world, Piper. I just got here.”</p><p>“You think I haven’t done this before? I know some of them don’t want to talk. I’ve seen them do horrible things to good people - hell, whatever you’ve seen out here, I’ve seen ten times worse a hundred times over. But there are still good people out there, people that can make a real difference and a real life for themselves if you give them a chance.”</p><p>She felt herself cutting off at the end as she watched Nora close her eyes and shake her head. “Listen, Piper, I respect that, I really do, but I’m not going to take chances on my son’s life. You’ve got a little sister, don’t you? What would you do if she went missing and this was your only chance of finding her?”</p><p>Piper felt her throat tighten as that visceral, protective part of her stirred somewhere in her gut. “I’d do anything to get her back. But I wouldn’t execute people just for getting in the way.”</p><p>“Then we won’t execute anyone. But if they shoot at me, I’m going to shoot back. I didn’t come this far just to lose my baby boy to a guy dressed like Charlie Chaplin.”</p><p>Without another word, even to explain who that was, Nora pushed past her and into the next room. It took Piper a long moment to follow her, watching her stalk through the room like she was hunting radstag. This felt wrong. It wasn’t like the gang here was full of upstanding citizens, and Piper had shot more than a few before today when they tried to do the same to her, but that didn’t make what Nora was doing right.</p><p>Did it?</p><p>She had watched Nora cut through them like wind through an old shirt, every shot clean and clinical and impossibly accurate. Pop-pop, thump, pop-pop, thump. They hadn’t even known what was coming and maybe that was what made it seem so cruel.</p><p>After standing by the door for far too long, she tiptoed her way into the room, creeping along a catwalk until she caught sight of Nora waving her forward into the shadow of another stairwell. She hurried forward, pressing herself up against some big, plastic boxes and noting with concern the single finger pressed to Nora’s lips. She slowed her breathing, taking only small, long sips of air that came tinged with whatever pre-war scents Nora had brought with her into the new world. It wasn’t until she really listened that she could hear a familiar voice.</p><p>“-pulled out a little black book of his and struck your name through. Three times.”</p><p>That was Nick! She would know that voice anywhere. Nora was waiting to catch her eye, one eyebrow raised in question. She nodded once in reply and winced as she heard another voice.</p><p>“Three times? You’re sure?” Whoever it was already sounded terrified. At least it wouldn’t last long.</p><p>But Nora didn’t move. She stayed in the shadows, still looking right at Piper, face blank but for a tension in her jaw that said she was forcing herself to do this.</p><p>Footsteps banged on the metal floor above. “I gotta go! I gotta - oh shit, I gotta get outta here!”</p><p>The heavy footfalls crashed down the stairs above them, loud as stadium speakers, and kept going right past them, out the far door and into the now-quiet Vault. Nora’s rifle stayed where it was. She had seen enough of her in action to know it would have been an easy shot. One less triggerman to worry about, one less threat on their way out the door.</p><p>But the moment he left the room, Nora took a quiet step forward and turned on Piper, releasing a long breath that made Piper want to offer her a smoke. “There. Happy?”</p><p>She nodded, breathing her own deep sigh as the assaultron showed its human side. “Thank you.”</p><p>There was the barest nod of acknowledgement as Nora turned away, making for the stairs and the jailed detective waiting for them. Whatever Nora had been before, coming here must have shattered it into a thousand pieces, leaving only an old-world super soldier and a mother’s desire to save her son. It made her think of when Olivia had shattered in her arms, breaking down as the world came crashing down on top of her. What would have happened if Olivia had someone taken from her, a son or a little sister like Nat? She honestly had a hard time imagining the girl hurting anyone, but she had survived all those raiders somehow.</p><p>She probably would have lied her way into the Vault successfully. Or gotten both of them thrown in with Nick and then found a secret tunnel under a desk. That seemed more like her. No mess, no murder, just walk in and walk back out.</p><p>Unable to suppress a fond smile, Piper made her way up the stairs to follow Nora, hoping Diamond City was being good to its newest vault dweller.</p><p> </p><p>“That’s not true!”</p><p>Olivia grinned, watching Nat bounce her way down the stairs toward the baseball field. “You don’t believe me?”</p><p>“Nope.” Nat shook her head, still beaming and giggling as she went. “You’re too boring.”</p><p>“Excuse me, I work in an unlit basement and my best friends are two giant bugs, what makes you think I wasn’t like this before the war?”</p><p>“Two?”</p><p>“Yeah, Big Green and you.”</p><p>Nat rolled her eyes. “Oh, you’re so funny.”</p><p>There was no need to wonder where the younger sister got her attitude. Piper had talked her ear off on their walk back from the Stockpile and she had not forgotten the many witticisms she had been subjected to along the way. Nat also had a reputation around the city for terrorizing new visitors, so she was at least socially aware enough to frighten strangers on the street. It was actually a bit convenient. She hadn’t known how to treat kids before the war and had always felt uncomfortable talking to them, but Nat made it seem easy. It was probably the radiation in the water. Also sharing a world with scorpions the size of a midsize sedan. Piper was her own age and would probably be turning grey any day now.</p><p>“But I still don’t believe you,” Nat continued, stubborn as a brick wall.</p><p>Olivia sighed dramatically. “Are you going to make me tell the whole story?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>She hadn’t really expected anything different, but she did play up her annoyance if only to bolster Nat’s ego. Not that it needed it. “Fine. Then maybe you’ll leave me alone and I’ll get some work done today.”</p><p>“You don’t even do any real work!”</p><p>“Don’t sass your elders,” she said, waving away what was a very legitimate criticism of her work ethic. “Alright. Let me explain pre-war college to you. You went to school from when you were old enough to walk until you were eighteen.”</p><p>“Ew.”</p><p>“I know! You have it so much better.” Nat’s understanding of sarcasm was truly a gift from God because she knew of few other ways to communicate. The girl screwed up her face but let her continue the story. “And then, once you were out of that school, you had to try to get into another one. They’d look at how you did in school all those years, then keep digging. What did you do outside of school? Who were your friends? You had to hold down a job and six hobbies just to get in the door to CIT.”</p><p>“But you did?” Nat sounded, rightfully, suspicious.</p><p>She stuck her chin in the air and again waved at her, also rightly, like an annoying gremlin. “I worked hard to get in those big, white doors, I’ll have you know. Mom and dad wanted me to be a chemist, carry on the family tradition. So, as soon as I got in, I started my experiments.”</p><p>Nat came around slowly, looking cautiously interested and sadly missing the lead. “What experiments?”</p><p>She snorted at the untapped potential in that question. Hopefully she could get Piper to ask the same question when she got back. She would appreciate the layers of meaning. “Mostly the effects of liquid intoxicants on newly-emancipated youths with undeveloped brains and a sense of invincibility.” Nat looked blankly at her until she translated. “I got drunk. A lot.”</p><p>At least she got a kick out of that. “Wow, good job.”</p><p>“After so many years, I wasn’t ready to take college seriously. Don’t be like me. Stay in school. Anyway,” she said, bowling over any objections Nat was getting ready to air. “After one of our exams, a friend of mine decides to party it up a little harder than usual. Being young and stupid, I joined her, and eventually there were a good five or maybe six of us wandering around CIT in the middle of the night. I was, uh, resting on one of the statues when one of them starts yelling ‘eeyyyy I found somethin’. I turned around and this guy is prying up part of the ground with his hands. He’s got a big, stone block and he’s just hauling it back on the grass like it’s nothing.</p><p>“So we all went over to see what he was doing. Turns out, there’s a bunch of old tunnels running under the campus, with a bunch of old heating and plumbing pipes down there making some truly amazing noises. This guy dumps the slab of rock on the ground and before we can say anything he’s down the hatch, yelling about exploring the land of the mole people.” She watched Nat for her reaction, both as an invested storyteller and to determine if this future held a larger or smaller amount of mole people. “And we followed him. My friend burned her arm pretty bad on one of the pipes after a few minutes but it was pretty roomy down there. There were these big cisterns twenty feet across, ladders that went down into unlit tunnels, it was like an underground city.”</p><p>Nat’s eyes had gotten big. “No way.”</p><p>“It’s probably still there. Maybe I’ll take you across the river sometime and we can go looking for the mole people.”</p><p>Having impressed a young girl with stories of drunkenly wandering around campus, she was riding high on that rare feeling of self worth, and she refused to look too much closer at why it had come calling now. Piper had saved her life then run off with someone else, leaving her little sister here on her own. If she could make said little sister happy, that was as good a reason as any to keep waking up in the morning. Besides, she liked Nat, hellraiser that she was.</p><p>“Don’t tell Piper about those tunnels, she’ll run off and look for the Institute and never come back.” Nat folded her arms grumpily and kicked up a cloud of dust at the base of the steps, turning to follow the road that would take her home.</p><p>Olivia winced. “She does this often, then?”</p><p>They hadn’t talked much about Piper since she had left three days ago and every time she had brought it up, Nat had alternated between idolizing her and being angry that she wasn’t around more. It wasn’t hard to understand why. “All the time. She’s always looking for another story. If other people would just help her out, she wouldn’t have to do all of it alone. She wouldn’t have to go to Bunker Hill for weeks and come home sick and with no hair.”</p><p>Unsure of what to do with that description, she just blinked. “What?”</p><p>“Yeah. She wouldn’t talk to me about it, but she was really sick when she came home. Like throwing up, sweating, too tired to get up. It was scary. I thought she was going to die. The doctor helped her but no one else did! And then she was right back out looking for more things to fix.”</p><p>As someone who used mild headaches to avoid work, that sounded like insanity to Olivia. It also sounded a lot like radiation poisoning, but she was still walking around with silky black locks so if nothing else, the people here were good at dealing with nuclear fallout. “That sounds incredible.”</p><p>Nat nodded eagerly. “It is. I wish I could go with her instead of going to school.”</p><p>“Really? You’d rather get kidnapped by raiders than look at radiation in those chamber things?”</p><p>“Ion chambers,” Nat corrected. She said it kindly but there was an unavoidable wound that came from being outsmarted by someone half her size. “And they’re great, but Piper does real good out there. And I’d get to be with her, solving cases and making the world better. That’s what I want to do, not just… teach.”</p><p>Olivia had always clashed with her older sister. She had loved her big brother, but her sister had never been someone she looked up to. Not like that, anyway. She had gone straight into the Air Force after escaping high school and had wanted all her younger siblings to do the same. What a disappointment it must have been when her brother had gone on to study poetry and her sister had gone on to carry small boxes to and from her car. She hadn’t actually thought about what happened to her all that much. She had probably survived the bombs somehow and lived out her days cursing her stubborn family for their lack of national zeal.</p><p>Seeing Nat idolize hers so much was something amazing, even if that meant she wanted to charge out into the howling wastes and risk her teeth falling out for a story. “Doesn’t she ever go after stories in the city? What about that one about the mayor?”</p><p>“That’s a big one and it’ll take a long time to solve. It’s hard to chase down just one thing when so much is wrong. That’s what she tells me, anyway. With the Ration Stockpile, she was looking for food so the city wouldn’t starve. When she went to Bunker Hill, it was about bad drinking water. She saves lives, does really cool things, and not all of them can be looking through garbage for something an old, fat man threw out.”</p><p>Her imagination cringed at the image of post-apocalyptic garbage cans. “Does she actually go dumpster diving?”</p><p>“When she has to. Anything for a story.”</p><p>The street outside Publick Occurrences was quiet. Most people seemed not to venture outside the walls unless they had to and Olivia was still learning the ins and outs of the caravan schedules. It must have been a slow day for them because even the market looked quiet. Myrna was lounging in the shade, peering at anyone she thought was shifty which, of course, was everyone. She did give Olivia a small nod, though, so that was nice. A few people sat at the noodle bar enjoying the lunch special - noodles - and a woman was laughing loudly outside what Olivia was determined to call the pharmacy. She had tried thinking of it as the drug store but it always ended up as the drug den, which she was not sure she wanted to say out loud.</p><p>Nat walked up to the front door, fishing in her coat pocket for the key. “Are we going to stay at your house tonight?”</p><p>The question made her smile wide enough to be embarrassing. “If you want. I’ve only got the one bed and don’t think I’m not prepared to fight for it.”</p><p>“I don’t want it anyway,” Nat said, blowing a raspberry. “It’s got roach all over it.”</p><p>“He’s perfectly hygienic.” That was an absolute lie and she dreaded to think what diseases came with having a giant roach curled up at your feet all night. “But you’re right. One giant bug is enough for that bed.”</p><p>“I’ve got my own sleeping bag, I’ll just - hey!” Nat shoved the door open, her key still in the lock as it swung inward. “Piper!”</p><p>In the flesh, and still in her red coat, Piper Wright turned to see her little sister come barreling through the door to greet her. “Hey! What were you up to out there? Causing trouble for the new girl?”</p><p>The new girl followed Nat through the door, catching Piper’s eye and nodding as she came inside. She could have watched these two get one each other’s nerves all day and, with a hurry-up-and-wait job like hers, she might be able to get away with it for at least a few hours.</p><p>Then she noticed the other woman standing at the far end of the room, and that job began to look far more appealing. Standing taller than Piper even while she lounged against the wall, she towered over Olivia, allowing her to look down on her fellow vault dweller in the literal as well as the figurative sense. A rifle was still slung over her shoulder along with bandoliers chock full of bullets and a belt brimming with magazines. Where it was not covered, the vault suit fit her like a glove and made her look like a living action figure compared to Olivia’s own lazy Sunday Barbie look.</p><p>Nat was also looking and spoke up while Olivia wilted under the woman’s stare. “Wow. That’s some nice hardware, lady.”</p><p>“Thank you.” She did not even look at Nat. “Care to introduce your friend?”</p><p>Piper, as intimidated by this woman as she was by raiders, stepped up next to her sister. “You’ve met my sister, I assume.”</p><p>The woman’s eyes flicked to Piper briefly but didn’t linger. “Yeah. Saw her outside yesterday.”</p><p>For her own part, Nat looked back to Olivia, either not noticing the tension or not caring enough to acknowledge it as she continued asking questions in an uninterested deadpan. “So you’re both from the same Vault, huh? How come you don’t know each other?”</p><p>“That’s a good question,” the woman growled. “I don’t recognize you. I checked the other pods before I left. I didn’t see anyone still alive.”</p><p>“You must have missed one.” Piper stepped between the woman and Olivia, forever endearing herself to the frightened woman. “This is Olivia. She saved my life from raiders a few days ago and has been very generous about her time before the war. Olivia, this is Nora. She -”</p><p>“Did you go in there after I left, Olivia?” Nora interrupted, still not looking at Piper. “Did you go digging around for something to steal? Pull that suit off a frozen body? Did you go through my husband’s pockets, too?”</p><p> </p><p>“I didn’t live there,” she managed, stopping Piper from saying anything else. “I was delivering something in the neighborhood.”</p><p>“Yeah? What was the name of the delivery company?”</p><p>“Quantum Leap. Delivery at the speed of light.” The slogan seemed to calm Nora down a bit, a reaction that should have left Olivia in stitches. She never thought she’d have to say that again. “I remember you. I saw you on the lift. With… I’m sorry.”</p><p>Nora’s eye twitched, her lips curling in a sneer. “Of course. Of course you would survive. My husband died. My son is gone. But you’re here. I remember you, now. You weren’t even supposed to be there. Just got lucky. Almost got me and my family locked out. I remember them turning us away, saying we had just gone through the gate. They would have left us to die if I hadn’t been wearing my old uniform. One last bit of luck, huh? On my way out to give some stupid fucking speech about war and that’s what saves my life. But no. You survive. Why? Why are you still here?”</p><p>She wished she knew the answer to that. Instead, she stared at the floor, one pathetic shrug all she could do to answer. “I don’t know.”</p><p>“Neither do I.”</p><p>She looked up long enough to catch Piper’s eye, shaking her head just slightly when she saw the rage in the woman’s eyes. It made her feel better, actually, having someone ready to stand up for her like that, but right now she just wanted to crawl back to that hilltop and die in the nuclear blast like a good girl.</p><p>Instead, she slipped a hand in her pocket. “I, uh, I remember you. I was there to drop off something for you.”</p><p>The woman shifted and the clatter of plastic and metal made her wonder if something was being aimed at her head. There wasn’t when she looked up but Nora did look more than ready to punch her through the wall. She pulled her hand free of the pocket slowly, letting the metal chain catch the lamplight as it dangled between her fingers.</p><p>“It’s a few hundred years late, but here. Direct to your doorstep.”</p><p>She came forward enough to reach forward, gently placing the well-preserved, two-hundred-year-old jewelry in Nora’s waiting hand. It was like watching the world end in reverse. All the time lost to the atomic bombs rolled back and Nora was suddenly back in her old home, jarred from her morning routine of coffee and the weather and her husband holding their child by a surprise ring of her doorbell and a young, unkempt college dropout handing her a cardboard box.</p><p>For a brief moment, she could see that old life just as clearly as Nora, glimpsing it through the window as she went to recover a dead bird so she wouldn’t lose her job. Everything seemed brighter, the world colored in more than just shades of brown.</p><p>Nora sank to the couch, staring down at the shining emeralds set into a brilliant silver necklace. It looked so out of place, now, like it should crumble to dust just from being left out in the air. Her hands didn’t tremble and she didn’t burst into sobs as Olivia had when she had first sat in that spot, but there was no mistaking the way the light caught on her cheeks and on the tears that soon pattered gently against the metal.</p><p>Piper stared, silent, eyes wide and fixed on Olivia. She met them briefly, again shrugging and offering a small smile. Nat watched, too, plainly uncertain of what she was supposed to do. She didn’t blame her, really. This was not how the afternoon was supposed to go.</p><p>“I should get going,” she mumbled, drawing Nat’s attention and giving the little girl a genuine smile. “I’ll come by later, okay?”</p><p>Nat smiled, gave Nora a very uncertain look, and made her own quiet escape, moving over to her room behind the bookshelves and disappearing out of sight. She had almost reached the door when Piper caught up to her, footsteps quiet against the wooden floor.</p><p>“Hey.” Piper’s hand came to rest on the door, level with her eyes, keeping her from opening the door just yet. “You okay?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll just - it’s better if I’m not here, I think.”</p><p>She tried to turn the handle but Piper did not let her open the door, leaning in a bit closer to catch her skittish gaze. “I mean it.”</p><p>“So do I. Honestly, I think I could use some time to myself right now. A basement full of boilers sounds amazing.”</p><p>Piper smirked. “Alright. Well, you can come back tonight if you want. If you’re not too busy making friends with the fancy folks in the stands.”</p><p>She laughed, the sound proving to be the key to the door as Piper removed her arm and let it swing open. “Thanks. They probably don’t like me much, anyway. Too much manual labor, not enough patchy dresses.”</p><p>“I tried to warn you. You weren’t born in the upper stands, Blue, and you’ll always be one of us.” Piper let her walk out onto the porch but held the door open just behind her. “And hey - no more making vault dwellers cry on my couch. That’s my job. You’re making me look bad.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Off to the Races</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A few months after her adventure with Nora, Piper convinces Olivia to help her with a story</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Publick Occurrences, for all the mayhem it tended to cause in the streets outside, was relatively quiet once you were through the door. It actually felt a little like a therapist's office, though that was mostly because Olivia used it like one whenever she could. A more appropriate analogy might have been going home for Christmas, but that didn’t feel right, either.</p><p>That analogy also fell apart when Piper began scratching away at the notepad in her hand. “You know, Blue, I’m starting to think you’re pretty lucky.”</p><p>She had been waiting for her to say that, and her head fell back to thump against the couch with premeditated flare. “Why do people keep saying that?”</p><p>“Well, it’s true. You survived the apocalypse, which I suppose is not the best luck in the world.” She gave Olivia a sympathetic look that was appreciated but unnecessary. The last few months had taken the edge off her little time skip. “But you did, and as far as I know, only one other person can say the same. Hey! Don’t fall asleep, old woman.”</p><p>“No one respects their elders anymore,” she moaned at the ceiling before popping her head back up with a grin.</p><p>“Besides surviving that, you also managed to befriend a radroach, pacify a bunch of raiders, one of whom apparently shot himself in the head, then later the same day pacify a second group of raiders while flat on your back - you know, most people would try to make themselves look better in these stories -”</p><p>“Keeping those expectations low, baby.”</p><p>Piper snorted and resumed, having finished interrupting herself. “On top of that, you found almost as much food as I did by opening a single door, got all the raiders there to kill each other, saved someone from a third raider group, returned to said raider group, and helped yourself to one charming and colorful damsel in distress.”</p><p>She smiled thinly at Piper’s description of herself but declined to object. “Yeah, well, I didn’t know you back then.”</p><p>“Very true. Make sure you explain that to everyone here when they ask, otherwise you’ll get lumped in with me. But seriously, Blue, this is incredible. I don’t know who this Nightshade person is but it sounds like you’re very lucky to have gotten away from them alive.”</p><p>Not many details had been safe from Piper’s interrogation, but the exact details surrounding Nightshade had been mercifully left out. The things she said and did were still very confusing to poor Olivia and she would prefer to sort them out on her own. She wanted to believe that Nightshade wasn’t all bad and that she had protected this helpless vault dweller for more than just her own gain. That didn’t mean that she was a great person, and it didn’t make her any less terrifying, but it did mean she was a person, not a monster.</p><p>That was what she thought, anyway, and she thought about Nightshade far too often to be healthy. “No argument here” was all she said.</p><p>Piper again tapped her pen against the notepad. “I appreciate you doing this, you know, talking about what happened.”</p><p>“It’s nothing,” she said, shrugging off the more visceral parts of those memories. “Really. After everything you and Nat have done for me, telling some stories is really the least I can do.”</p><p>“I’m sure one of us has done quite a bit for you.” Piper narrowed her eyes in the way only eldest sisters could. “I don’t know what little eyebot has been up to, but if she’s been bothering you at work, I can get her to leave you alone.”</p><p>Olivia laughed, waving her hands in mock surrender. “She’s fine, really. I don’t know what I’d do without her keeping me company. It’s not like the boilers do much talking.”</p><p>“Are you at least helping her with her homework?”</p><p>“Honestly, she’s a better student than I ever was. I thought I’d have the edge, you know? Fifteen-odd years of formal schooling against a girl who grew up on a baseball field. No offense. But she’s really sharp. There’s not a lot I can help with. Maybe if she starts asking me about Shakespeare I can bore her into doing something else.”</p><p>Piper’s eyes narrowed again. “Sometimes I forget you got to see all these libraries before the bombs fell. You saw computer terminals with the screens in them and cars that actually moved and weren’t filled with roaches.”</p><p>Olivia paused, considering the offhand remark. It caught her attention for two reasons, both equally important. The first was the thought of doing something nice for Piper. If she was this interested in old-world stuff, that was actually something Olivia could help with. Nat might already be better than her when it came to geometry, trigonometry, chemistry, physics, and pretty much anything one might consider useful in the new world, she had paid the slightest amount of attention in her old english courses, and that made her special. If she was interested in history, she knew a little of that, too, and could at least pick out some of the better books on the shelves. Art had almost certainly died and undergone a rebirth in the form of either metal sculptures or irradiated horticulture, so she could maybe find a few books on old paintings and the stories behind them.</p><p>The second reason was that she needed to get a kennel or something for Big Green. She would just need to find a way to get the car into the city and onto her roof like the bus on top of the school.</p><p>“Speaking of which,” Piper said, interrupting her very important thoughts. “I was wondering if you would want to come outside the walls with me.”</p><p>Olivia blinked a single time. “Absolutely not. Why?”</p><p>“You sure know how to shoot a girl down.”</p><p>“There is a perfectly good noodle bar just down the street, if you’re looking for a date. If that date involves anything outside the walls, I’m sorry to say that it just won’t work out. I’m two hundred years old. I need stability at this point in my life.”</p><p>“You really are an old woman, aren’t you?” Piper teased. “But I know you aren’t exactly the adventuring type and I wouldn’t ask you unless I thought it was important. And that I could protect you! Really, the place I’m thinking of is right outside the walls. It’s just that, after what happened with the Stockpile, I’m not real keen on going out alone, and I can’t ask Nora because she’s still off with Nick.”</p><p>She had mostly avoided Nora since the whole necklace incident and had stayed on her side of town. That had also meant avoiding Piper for a week afterward, seeing her only a few times when they happened to be breaking for lunch together. It was probably for the best, honestly, considering how she had acted when she found out about the whole frozen for centuries thing. She wasn’t willing to risk breaking down in front of her for the second time in the same month. There were rules for that sort of thing.</p><p>She had spent the time mostly getting her own thoughts in order and, like so many girls as they grew older, wondering why she was here at all. Her days now mostly went the same way, with her waking up in the morning, wondering why she existed at all until mid-afternoon, and then forgetting all about it when Nat came to visit. It had made the slow turning of days to weeks to months somehow bearable, and before she knew it, Christmas was just around the corner.</p><p>Piper was still looking at her curiously, waiting for a response now that she had brought up her fellow vault survivor. She still wasn’t sure what to say. “So she’s been okay?”</p><p>“It’s Nora,” Piper answered, the name already carrying a heavy reputation in Diamond City and so lending a bit of weight to the words. “She’s as intense as a laser and about as talkative, but after what you did, she started to calm down. Even gave me an interview yesterday before she left with Nicky. She’s got a good heart, I think, she’s just been through a lot.”</p><p>Olivia found herself nodding. She wasn’t much for holding grudges, not against people like that. It was easier to just let them make noise somewhere else, be dangerous to other people. “I believe it.”</p><p>“That doesn’t mean she got off the hook, though.” Piper waggled a finger under Olivia’s nose menacingly. “She won’t be giving you that crap about being alive again, not if she wants my help finding her kid.”</p><p>She smiled in spite of herself. She hadn’t thought of Piper as one of those dangerous people but maybe she could hold her own against Nora. The Publick was certainly a force to be reckoned with in the city.</p><p>Feeling herself giving in, Olivia sighed. “What’s this adventure you keep talking about?”</p><p>“So that gang I told you about from the vault, the Triggermen? They haven’t been around much since they got run out of Goodneighbor - that’s another city out to the east of here. Don’t worry about it, we’ll never visit if we can avoid it. Seeing those guys back in the vault and moving in on some old raider territory, it got me thinking, and it turns out they’re trying to make some space for themselves in our peaceful corner of the Commonwealth.”</p><p>Olivia still wasn’t clear why anyone would want to be with the raiders unless they were crazy and these Triggermen didn’t sound much better. They lived in old vaults, apparently, which was a step up in her mind, but Diamond City had water and electricity and noodles. “So are they trying to get back in? Or are they coming here?”</p><p>“Oh, if they tried to come back here, they would have a really bad time. They only went to Goodneighbor after they got kicked out by McDonough. Even he can’t stand fixed betting. Probably messes with his programming or something. No, Blue, they’ve done something very strange and I’d like to know why.” Piper seemed content to leave her in suspense, only continuing when she gave her a very obvious prompt. “They’ve settled into Easy City Downs. No one knows why, but the rumors cannot be ignored.”</p><p>“I think they can. I’m very good at ignoring rumors.”</p><p>It was a joke but Piper was no longer the friend and Nuka enthusiast that she had come to love. Now that a story was afoot, she was Piper Wright, seeker of truths and righter of wrongs, ferreter-out of evils great and small. “They never do anything if there isn’t a big pile of caps waiting for them at the end. They’re up to something out there and I mean to find out what. Best case scenario if we leave them alone? The people who go out to gamble on their rigged games just lose their money and the only ones who die on the road are people we don’t like.”</p><p>Olivia snickered. “Wow, that’s cold, Piper.”</p><p>“I don’t want to hear it, Blue. The only thing I want to hear is you packing your bags to follow me.”</p><p>“Pack my - what could I bring that would help? What do you even expect me to do? I’ve never shot a gun in my life and the last time I pointed one at a raider, I ended up just handing it over anyway.”</p><p>Piper’s eyes flashed and for a moment Olivia was worried she would begin asking more questions about the exchange. She had never been very good at lying and if Piper decided to question her about the details, then details she would have, in all their embarrassing irrelevance.</p><p>But she seemed too distracted at the moment and Olivia was off the hook. “You said you knew the code that opened the back room of the brewery.”</p><p>“So what?”</p><p>“So, would that code work on other doors? Did Easy City Downs have a delivery entrance?”</p><p>“I don’t know, maybe?” Olivia stammered, struggling to remember if she’d ever delivered anything there before. “Probably. Most of the places in Boston had an agreement with Quantum Leap that let us walk in and just drop the packages off directly instead of the usual paperwork. The other companies had to go through this verification process and then - sorry, that’s not important.”</p><p>Those eyes, usually so sharp, had started glazing over as Olivia had started babbling but came back to life the moment she stopped. She didn’t blame her. “So that’s a maybe, Blue?”</p><p>“Yeah. Solid maybe. The code would be the same to all the doors, though. I hadn’t thought about that.”</p><p>“Hmm, my very own skeleton key. You’re quite the pre-war relic, aren’t you, Blue?”</p><p>Once again, she felt horribly objectified, and though she could have probably just told Piper to stop, her heart was not in it. A growing part of her wanted to get out and explore. She didn’t like the idea of Nora out there doing all these amazing things while she stayed in a basement with a radroach. It scared the shit out of her and she knew perfectly well she would almost certainly die the moment she stepped outside, but she wanted to be helpful.</p><p>She also knew that Piper would go right ahead and do this whether she had help or not and the woman was not exactly batting a thousand when it came to infiltrating raider gangs. Not that her own record was much more impressive, comparing Piper’s one strikeout to her own intentional walk and being hit by a pitch. Maybe neither of them should have been stepping up to the plate.</p><p>“Fine.”</p><p>Piper beamed. “I knew you’d come around.”</p><p>“That’s a terribly insulting thing to say about me.” Olivia sulked against the couch, looking around at the room she was going to miss so terribly in her final moments. There she would be, bleeding out on the ground, wondering why she didn’t just stay home.</p><p>“What? You’re helpful and kind and brave and -”</p><p>“And stupid, I know. Let’s get this over with. I’ll grab my water. I guess my coat, too. Maybe some food?”</p><p>“A gun?” Piper added unhelpfully.</p><p>“Not unless you want me shooting you by accident.”</p><p>Piper blew a raspberry and gave her that older sister look that was much less charming when it was aimed at her. “Alright, when we’re getting back, I’m teaching you how to shoot. No excuses. I don’t want you getting hurt out there.”</p><p>“The only reason I’m going out now is because of you! Maybe instead of you teaching me to shoot, I should teach you how to fix boilers,” Olivia grumbled as she stood, allowing herself to be herded toward the door.</p><p>“I said no excuses! Now, chin up, Blue, we’re off to the races!”</p><p> </p><p>Walking the Commonwealth was stressful enough on its own and Piper was determined not to help make it any better. Olivia remembered in perfect clarity how many guns, knives, or teeth had been pointed menacingly at her fragile form and she was in no hurry to increase that number. She would die a happy woman if she never knew what a super mutant actually looked like. With this and many other fears in mind, she was determined to be as small and quiet as possible as they crept through the skeletonized streets of Boston.</p><p>Piper, on the other hand, didn’t give a fuck. “Hey, Blue, what was that place before the bombs?”</p><p>The woman’s voice bounced off every solid surface within half a mile and that stupid red coat of hers could not have been more obvious if she took it off and waved it like a flag. Olivia didn’t even look at the building. “I don’t know.”</p><p>Her own whisper brought Piper a little closer. “Relax, Blue, Security is all over these streets. You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ve done this hundreds of times, remember?”</p><p>“Yeah, and last time you were going to get fed to a behemoth,” Olivia hissed back.</p><p>Piper just laughed - laughed! She was terrified out of her mind and this woman was treating it like an afternoon stroll. “Yeah. I need to work on my backstories. My last two have fallen pretty flat and someone needs to show you how it’s done.”</p><p>She found herself wishing in all sincerity that it was Nora teaching her, if she was to be taught at all. Far better to stay inside the walls and let other people hold the guns. She could do her part, they could do theirs, and she wouldn’t end up like her predecessor. What would Nat do if her sister died because she was trying to teach some old fossil how to survive out here? How would that old fossil explain that to a child?</p><p>“I should have stayed home,” she grumbled, slinking further into the shadows.</p><p>“Listen, the way you’re hugging that wall, you’re more likely to die from it collapsing on you than a super mutant finding you out here.”</p><p>“Great! Sounds like good odds to me!”</p><p>Piper again laughed and came closer. “Okay. You’re helping me out, so I’ll do you a solid. Stand still.”</p><p>She did as she was told, coming to a sharp halt and looking around frantically for anyone following them. Piper came up next to her and just stood facing her, arms folded, as calm as could be. She didn’t even say a word. “What? What is it?”</p><p>“Tell me what’s wrong.”</p><p>“What’s wrong? We’re out here. Alone. With all the raiders and mutants and deathclaws. I shouldn’t be here.” She looked over her shoulder back toward Fenway Park. It still towered over the road not a hundred yards away. If she squinted, she could still see security officers patrolling the top of the wall.</p><p>“That’s right.” Piper casually looked up and down the road to either side. “Do you see any of those things here?”</p><p>Every shadowed alleyway held dozens of them, but even as panicked as she was, she knew when she was being irrational. Not that it helped drive away said panic. “No.”</p><p>“And how do you imagine Diamond City gets the things it can’t make or grow itself? All those traders have to come from somewhere.”</p><p>She had a point and Olivia knew it, but right now Olivia was not in the driver’s seat. She was wrestling for control of her own mind as it careened out of control over a cliff. “I guess.”</p><p>Piper took a step closer, putting one hand on her shoulder. Between her voice and the gentle pressure on her shoulder, Olivia finally managed to turn the wheel and apply the brakes before she went into the abyss. Slowly, the world started to look a bit more normal. It was still terrifying, but the walls weren’t closing in the way they had been a moment ago. Piper kept her hand on her shoulder as she straightened up a bit and Olivia found herself grateful for that.</p><p>“There we go.” Piper nodded toward a nearby street, somehow catching movement Olivia hadn’t noticed until she pointed it out. Maybe a dozen figures, all wearing DC Security outfits, made their way up the next street over, talking loudly enough to be heard this far away.</p><p>Olivia managed a slow nod. “Thanks. I didn’t know it’d be that bad.”</p><p>“You had a rough first time,” Piper said far more kindly than she deserved. “You’ll get used to it.”</p><p>“I’d rather not.”</p><p>“You’ve got the keys to the city, Blue,” Piper quipped, squeezing her shoulder again and turning her to the east. “And I’ve got a whole bunch of doors I’d like you to open.”</p><p>Of course she did.</p><p>Piper took the lead and Olivia followed, still quiet but no longer afraid of her own shadow. Easy City Downs was about an hour’s walk according to Piper and so there was plenty of time for the mind to wander. She did try to keep a lookout, but no one could stay focused forever, even when they were looking out for monsters, and soon started to look for old buildings she recognized from another era. Banks and restaurants, apartments and hotels, city buildings and public parks had all fallen into disrepair, unattended by those holed up in Diamond City and probably long since looted by those scratching out a living outside the walls.</p><p>A few times, she nudged Piper and gave her a name or a little snippet of history, and every time her eyes lit up and she took a few quick notes, producing a small book as if from nowhere. It made Olivia think, however briefly, about letting Piper teach her how to shoot, or at least how to hide. As much as she hated the idea, she really wanted to help Piper open every door on her list. She supposed she could have just given her the code to the doors and let her loose, but she wouldn’t know where the delivery entrance was in every building. Besides, she already said she wanted company out here so she didn’t end up chained up by raiders again, and for some reason she thought Olivia could keep that from happening. It hadn’t worked out so great for her last time. Unless there was someone for her to charm with her adorable helplessness, they would probably just be chained up together.</p><p>It was when she began to hear another echoing voice that she fell silent and Piper began to hurry forward, sensing the story she had come here to chase. The way the voice bounced off the wreckage of the old city gave it an almost haunted quality and made her want to lag behind even as she forced herself to keep pace with Piper.</p><p>Also, and she would never admit this to Piper, she was kind of enjoying the feeling that walking around these empty streets was bringing her. It was the kind of joy that came only from facing a great fear and finding it almost easy to overcome. Piper had helped a lot with that, of course, but she was still proud of herself for putting one foot in front of the other. The last time she had done this, she had ended up with a lot of guns pointed at her, and yet here she was, tempting fate again for the sake of a newspaper article.</p><p>Piper led her through a decrepit building and into a small back lot caged in by a chain link fence that was torn open in several places. Barbed wire once lined the top but had long since fallen away, leaving her more concerned with where she put her feet than with climbing over the rusted metal barrier. Most of the other buildings on the block had also fallen in on themselves like deflated concrete balloons and so left a field of rubble about chest-high all around. It was behind one such cresting wave of broken masonry that Piper now stood, one hand clutching the chain fence as she stared at the source of the noise.</p><p>It took Olivia a moment to realize what she was looking at. Another chain fence across the street had also mostly fallen in on itself, but this one was upholstered with newer walls of wood and scavenged steel, the barbed wire on them strung with unsettling care. The fence formed a wide arc along the edge of the road, and where the chain fence was still intact, there was a window into what was happening beyond.</p><p>A strange humming sound built and built until, roaring across one of these open spaces, came four Mr Handys, all with colored pennants hanging from their eye stalks. They watched the four go by in silence, and only after a moment did Olivia notice the sound of metal feet pounding the ground behind them. She waited, listening to the heavy footfalls, and crouched behind the rubble the moment the assaultron came into view, lumbering after the racing robots and vanishing from sight.</p><p>“I don’t believe it,” Piper muttered, and honestly neither did Olivia.</p><p>She stayed where she was, peeping over the rubble and waiting for something to happen. They stayed there in silence until the bots started on their second lap and a loudspeaker piped a reedy voice over the track. “And Bob’s Your Uncle has taken the lead with Boston Blaster hot on his heels! Coming around the bend now, he’ll need to take the inside track to get a lead! Steady on behind are Tin Man and Atomic Dreamz and Lady Lovelace bringing up the rear! If she’s going to make a comeback, it’ll have to be soon!”</p><p>Again the Mr Handys rocketed by, engines humming and sputtering as they went as Lady Lovelace trundled along behind them. Of all the things Olivia had been expecting, this had not been it.</p><p>“I’ll bet you’ve never seen anything like this, huh, Blue?”</p><p>Olivia laughed in quiet disbelief. “I can’t say I have. We used to have robot races before the war, but that was mostly small ones, little drones about the size of your hand that were basically two metal fins strapped to an engine. This, well, this is new. And that,” she pointed at the assaultron as it rounded another bend. “Is definitely new.”</p><p>“It’s amazing, is what it is! How did they get this place up and running all the way out here? I guess they’re far enough away from mutant territory, so maybe the noise hasn’t gotten to them yet.”</p><p>“They’re coming around the final bend and - what’s this? Lady Lovelace has found her legs! She’s making her move, passing Atomic Dreamz on the inside and looking to shoulder aside Tin Man!” As the voice on the speaker grew shrill, Olivia could swear she heard a crowd begin to cheer in the distance.</p><p>“What kind of story were you expecting here, anyway?” Olivia asked as she watched through the fence with mounting interest.</p><p>Piper made several noises that seemed to say “I don’t know, I’m just here for the laughs.” It made Olivia want to turn around and go home, never to be talked into something this supid again. She thought they were here for something, even if she didn’t quite understand what that something was.</p><p>“Tin Man has fallen behind! Can Lady Lovelace upset the odds once again?!”</p><p>The assaultron pounded past their stretch of the track, this time just behind the leading Mr Handys. Olivia looked over to Piper and nudged her. “So? Did you bring a camera or what?”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“This is your story. Shouldn’t you take a picture, make notes, interview the winner? I don’t know how it works.” Olivia looked back toward the track and the now clearly audible fans shouting for their favorites. “But now we know, right? No need to go snooping around inside.”</p><p>“Who said that?” Piper was still not looking down at her, as engrossed in the race as though she’d bet her house on it. “Come on, Blue, this is a huge operation they’ve got going! We have to see what’s going on. They’ve probably got all sorts of nasty folks in here. This could be a meeting place for all the raider gangs in the Commonwealth. Do you know what would happen if they all got together on Friday nights for a race and started getting ideas about Diamond City?”</p><p>To Olivia, that just sounded like more of a reason to not go anywhere near the place. “You’re kidding.”</p><p>“It’ll be easy, Blue. You’ll fit right in.”</p><p>“I’ll what?”</p><p>Piper looked down at her finally, grinning with psychotic excitement. “You and me, Blue. We can do this. We walk in, act natural, pretend we belong, and do some snooping, hidden in plain sight. It’s a perfect plan.”</p><p>“It’s not even a plan!” Olivia looked up in panic at the track, suddenly expecting to see severed heads mounting the walls. “What are they going to tell us, anyway? And what if they catch us?”</p><p>“We won’t know until we try. Come on, I know you can do this. You’ve gotten out of worse scrapes than this. These are the Triggermen. They care about caps and that’s it. They’re not going to kill you even if you go in saying you’re a pre-war vault dweller living in Diamond City. Just pay the guys at the door and you’re in.”</p><p>Piper peered around the streets briefly and pointed off toward the north, around the side of the track where Olivia could just see a group of people in white shirts loitering in the shade. Of course they all had guns but she was starting to expect that of people these days. “Why do you keep saying it like I’m going in and you’re staying here?”</p><p>“I’ll be right behind you but it’ll be less suspicious if we go in separately.” Seeing the doubt on Olivia’s face, she jumped in before any objections could be aired. “I’ve done this a thousand times! I can keep an eye on you wherever you are and if you ever get in trouble, I’ll be right there to help you out. Come on, Blue, this is important. If there is any smuggling, any slave trading, any exchange of anything valuable from one dangerous person to another, it will be happening here, right outside Diamond City! We can’t just ignore that.”</p><p>Though her time in the new world had been a bit different, the old Olivia had something of a mulish streak when it came to doing what she was told. It had gotten her both admitted to and kicked out of college, having been told first that she would never make it and then that she had to see it through, it had gotten her fired within a year of every job she had been at, and it had probably done a number on every relationship she had been in. New Olivia was a bit different, but her strict obedience hinged largely on having weapons pointed at her, so maybe there was nothing different after all.</p><p>But she did like Piper, and she liked Nat, and Diamond City, and she really did want to see what was happening with the robot races. She might not have been Nora, but she was getting a feel for this whole adventure thing, so long as it didn’t involve any gunfire. Gambling on robots? That she could handle.</p><p>Seasoned journalist that she was, Piper didn’t need any confirmation to know her manipulation had done its work. “Alright! Thanks, Blue, I mean it. I couldn’t do it without you.”</p><p>“Uh huh.” This was not how her afternoon was supposed to go.</p><p> </p><p>Olivia approached the Triggermen standing out in front of the racetrack with all the suicidal incaution of a girl fresh out of her teens. Somewhere behind her, the other girl fresh out of her teens was watching from the shadows, determined to swoop in and save her should anything go horribly wrong. That part of the plan hadn’t been explained in detail, but they wouldn’t need it anyway, so why spend so much time on it?</p><p>From where she was standing, it wasn’t so much that they wouldn’t need it, but that it wouldn’t matter. If things went south, assuming she wasn’t dead in the first ten seconds, her plan was to run as fast as she could away from the loudest noises and if that didn’t work, lie down and look like a helpless mole rat. It worked last time.</p><p>The ticket taker, as she was thinking of him, looked bored to tears until she had started across the road. Now he looked curious and entirely too interested in her as she wandered over, doing her best to act casual.</p><p>That failed as soon as she stopped in front of him. He said nothing, she said nothing. If there was a password or an understanding, she was definitely out of the loop, and hopefully Piper had pulled a sniper rifle out of that coat of hers and was lining up a shot from the shadows. More likely she was getting ready to sketch the tragic death scene at the end of The Life of a Vault Dweller: A Play in Three Acts.</p><p>“Well?”</p><p>She tried not to jump at the man’s voice. Like the others lounging in the shade behind him, he wore the too-clean white shirt and black pants of a Triggerman, though how any of it stayed clean was a mystery. All the world’s Abraxo must have been stashed at their home base, which was probably a laundromat.</p><p>“Well what?”</p><p>The man rolled his eyes. “Fucksake, when did the world forget how to read? Alright, let’s go down the list. Here I thought you might be a sharp one. Okay! Rule number one: no caps, no bets. None of this IOU bullshit, no trying to trade drugs, guns, or body parts to pay your fucking tab. Rule number two -”</p><p>He continued reading off the list next to him that she had somehow missed in her nervous walk over. Rule number two was actually comforting and prohibited shooting, stabbing, or seriously maiming other patrons while races were in progress. Any disagreements were to be taken outside, at which point the blood would not dirty up their nice white shirts so that was just fine with them. Rule number three stated in no uncertain terms that anyone upset with their viewing experience could take it up with someone called The Bookie. Given her previous experience with famous raiders, she was more than happy to leave their identity a mystery.</p><p>Her eyes flicked back to the unhappy Triggerman as he finished reciting the list. “That all get through that Waster brain of yours?”</p><p>It was probably best if he believed she was just another wanderer, so she declined to defend herself and her incredible powers of literacy. “Yeah. Think so.”</p><p>“If not, ask. It’s less annoying than cleaning your blood outta my shirt. And check your guns at the door, huh?”</p><p>“Don’t have any,” she said, too quick to notice that the man was obviously joking.</p><p>That jovial expression now changed back to one of interest. “Uh. Really?”</p><p>She was committed, so she might as well double down. She lifted the edges of her coat, doing a small turn so he could see behind her back. “Don’t need any.”</p><p>“Is that so?” the man asked, genuine curiosity taking the place of what had been overt disdain for his job. “Then whatever it is you got, keep it put away. Don’t break any necks or anything unless it's out here where we can see.”</p><p>Polite to a fault, she smiled and agreed. “Of course.”</p><p>The man smirked and motioned over his shoulder. “Head on in, girl. Oh, and place your bets before the race starts. Try any mid-race funny business and The Bookie’ll rub you out personally.”</p><p>Olivia nearly tripped on the curb and was grateful the man couldn’t see her face. Wherever he had gotten that expression from, no one had bothered to tell him that it meant something a little bit different when the bombs dropped. Language had a way of aging, fermenting old phrases into new ones that made old men scratch their heads and young women hide their reddened faces.</p><p>The walk reminded her far too much of the old days. It still felt like she was going to see her older sister play soccer or watch one of the pickup football games played outside her dorm. The raiders and other shady folk lingering in the shadows could have been just more college students enjoying their beer a little too much. Passing between the two large sets of stadium seats, canvas awnings shading the entire area and giving food carts a place to set up, she tried her best to keep her head down and her expression blank even as she marveled at what was surely an old Star Wars movie set.</p><p>A few men and women were out on the track tinkering with the robots as she passed into the light and began climbing the stairs toward the good seats. Most of the folks in the stands ignored her, something she very much appreciated, though a few gave her strange looks as she passed.</p><p>That wasn’t good. Piper had said to blend in. With so many people watching her, it probably wouldn’t be good to just watch the races. She was here to gamble, obviously, not gather information.</p><p>Where to place these bets was obvious enough. Another big wooden sign pointed her to a somewhat-official looking booth with people taking caps and posting odds. Once again, she stood in line, avoiding eye contact and casual conversation by staring at her shoes and following the crowd. There were so many raiders here and all of them looked and smelled like they were on a first-name basis with death. The ones who had guns kept them holstered or slung across their back, but there were others who had sledgehammers or rippers or knives as big as her arm.</p><p>She reached the booth to be greeted by a blonde-haired woman with a ball cap that meshed poorly with her business attire. “Bet?”</p><p>Olivia looked up at the board. She probably should have been thinking about that instead of the girl’s fashion sense.</p><p>“Come on, doll, race is about to start. Place your bet or get back to your seat.”</p><p>Needing to blend in, and knowing the bet was with Piper’s money, she reached into her pocket and picked the first name off the top of the board. “Piece o’ Junk.”</p><p>The woman snorted. “Long odds on that. Well, ante up!”</p><p>Sorely missing the days of cash and credit cards, Olivia pulled the stack of caps from her pocket and hurriedly put them on the table. The woman cocked an eyebrow at her. Probably too much on such long odds. A glance at the board told her the robot was well-named and had a whopping one in thirty-two chance of winning this race.</p><p>“Right.” The woman reached down, grabbing the cloth sleeve and opening it. “Two hundred on Piece o’ Junk. Thanks for the charity. Next!”</p><p>That was two hundred caps Piper would never see again. Hopefully she wouldn’t ask for them back.</p><p>Finding her way up to the top of the stands, Olivia sat as far away from the crowds as she could get, putting her a few seats away from a menacing looking bunch of raiders but mostly out of stabbing range. They didn’t seem to care that she sat down, just watched her for a moment and lost interest the moment the races began.</p><p>“And they’re off!” She instantly regretted her decision to sit directly beneath one of the speaker towers as the man’s reedy voice boomed out once more. “It’s Lady Lovelace taking an early lead, Tin Man and Atomic Dreamz just behind! Iron Maiden looks to be settling in for the long haul and of course bringing up the rear is Piece o’ Junk!”</p><p>Olivia fought the urge to boo her own robot as she watched it putter around the track, slow as the bots at the DMV. She found herself glaring at it as it made its first lap, trailing even the limping assaultron by a good distance. Even betting on it finishing the race would have been a long shot and now it looked as though the frontrunners would lap it before the race was done.</p><p>Having nothing else to do, she found herself listening to the conversation next to her. “And you’re sure it’s down there?”</p><p>The man’s voice was a heavy baritone and was answered by the cinematically-required, high-pitched minion voice. “Checked three times, boss. One sentry bot, loaded and ready to go.”</p><p>“But not just any sentry bot,” the boss’s voice rumbled like thunder.</p><p>“Right you are. This one’s got the big laser, the one they used to have on mining bots. Guess it was built for an old siege or something.”</p><p>Olivia had heard about those back when the war had been closer to home. They had fitted sentry bots with mining lasers to drill their way through enemy fortifications. The propaganda machine said they could burn through ten feet of solid steel in as many seconds.</p><p>“Doesn’t matter what it was for, now it’s ours, and once we’ve got it, that Diamond City door ain’t lookin so sturdy, is it?”</p><p>She found herself staring pointedly at her miserable failure of a robot, not daring to look left or right, and prayed that Piper was around here somewhere. Surely that was enough for her to go on. Big robot, big laser, both bad for big door.</p><p>“And we’re at the home stretch! Lady Lovelace looking for back-to-back first place finishes, with Tin Man trying his best to keep it from happening!” She stood to leave, picking her way through the seats toward the central stairs. Everything was fine. She was just taking a bathroom break ten minutes after sitting down. Just like she had at every movie theatre she’d ever been to. “And I’m sorry to say, folks, but this looks like the end of a storied career, today. Piece o’ Junk seems to have thrown in the towel on his last race.”</p><p>Olivia stopped at the stairs, turning to face the track just as her dark horse grew blindingly bright. The Mr Handy’s rocket suddenly flared with life, the frame staggering forward in drunken bursts, the eye stalks almost cartoonishly trailing behind it as it stuttered forward. It actually managed to make it around the next turn and pass Iron Maiden, something that she considered a big win assuming it didn’t just explode.</p><p>It did explode, and Olivia found herself staring, mouth-open as it did.</p><p>As one of the limbs clipped the inside of the track, the Mr Handy pitched forward, heading for the ground and an early grave just as the rocket sparked and lit up with an explosive BANG! The engine flared to life, flames engulfing Iron Maiden like dragon fire as it rocketed forward at blinding speed. The robotic bullet spun madly, roaring around the next corner as another of the legs skipped against the dirt, pulling it around the bend and steering it like a rudder. One of the legs snapped and the roar grew louder, the missile heading straight for the stands where Olivia was standing. She didn’t even have time to throw herself flat as the cloud of kicked-up dust took a sharp left turn and went screaming down the track, passing between Tin Man and Atomic Dreamz before taking Lady Lovelace’s legs out from beneath her.</p><p>In a flash of light and with all the flare of a modern-day miracle, Piece o’ Junk skimmed across the finish line before going up like a firework.</p><p>No one said a word. Everyone in the stands watched as Lady Lovelace hauled itself to its feet and trundled across the line, a full ten seconds behind what was now several burning pieces o’ junk.</p><p>“And, uh, that’s - that’s Piece o’ Junk. Piece o’ Junk with the win. I guess.”</p><p>The announcement was greeted largely by laughter. A few guests began cheering for the deceased robot, a few grumbled about how they weren’t going to win anyway, and a few stood up to leave.</p><p>What caught Olivia’s attention was the woman who was working the betting booth. She was staring right at Olivia, who was standing out in the open with no one around to help her, and did not look happy about the outcome of the race. Olivia did her best to hold the woman’s stare, swallowing hard before beginning to make her way toward the booth. She hadn’t done anything wrong. It was just luck. That was all. There was no reason to freak out about it. And she had even gotten what Piper wanted. Time to collect her caps and get out before anyone got the wrong idea.</p><p>The woman behind the counter whistled sharply and said a few words to a nearby Triggerman before looking back at Olivia, a wolfish grin spreading on her face. Looks like the wrong idea had already entered this woman’s mind.</p><p>“Long odds. Long fucking odds on a bet like that, girl.”</p><p>This was what she got for not reading the fine print. “I didn’t -”</p><p>“Don’t even bother telling me you didn’t cheat.” The woman reached under the desk, pulling out sleeve after sleeve of caps. “Here’s your winnings! Two hundred cap bet, you get thirty-two times that payout! A whopping purse of six thousand, four hundred caps. What a haul!”</p><p>She closed her eyes, suddenly very aware of every single raider now staring holes in the back of her head. “That’s not - I didn’t -”</p><p>“Don’t be shy! You won, fair and square! Now, why don’t you take these back to whatever hole you crawled out of and hide them somewhere safe? That’s a whole lot of money for just one girl to spend.” The woman leaned in and gave her a broad wink. “Better spend it while it’s still yours.”</p><p>Olivia awkwardly tried to shove the rolls of caps into her coat, fumbling with them as the woman chuckled and hummed a happy tune. When she finally backed up, the raiders in the seats were all watching her, some from the corners of their eyes, others staring brazenly at where all those caps had gone. Piper was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>She had to think of something. If she stayed, that just gave everyone here more time to get their friends together and jump her the moment she left the stands. If she left now, they would just follow her and jump her anyway. It wasn’t like she could fight them off even if they came one at a time. Her heart began to race as she realized there was no way she was getting out of these stands alive, not with all this money on her. She hadn’t even wanted it in the first place but it was too late to give it away now.</p><p>For a moment she considered throwing everything on the ground and running for her life, but somehow she knew they would follow her anyway, assuming she had hidden just one sleeve in her pocket. But this was all about the money. It had to be. If she just gave it to the first person who tried to rob her, she could get away with her life.</p><p>More raiders and wasters began moving through the stands, getting up on the pretense of stretching their legs. Seeing many of them coming toward the counter, she scurried into the stands just beneath the press box, moving toward the center of the seats and completely surrounding herself with nowhere to go but into some raider’s welcoming arms.</p><p>The next race began, albeit with fewer contestants, though few seemed interested in betting anymore. Most pretended to watch the race but kept looking over their shoulders at her, promising her that there was no way out of this. They could wait all day.</p><p>Or, at least, some of them could.</p><p>Someone sat down in the seat next to her, a desperate looking man with a ripped-up shirt and a beat-up piece of metal covering his chest. His arms were bare, exposing a myriad of scars and what Olivia could plainly see were dozens of places he had stabbed needles into his veins. “That’s a lot of caps you got there.”</p><p>She swallowed hard, forcing herself not to look at him. She was still trying to think of something to say when another man sat down in the seats behind her, then another beside him, and two more in the seats in front of her.</p><p>One of the men behind her put a hand on her shoulder. “That was pretty clever, rigging the race like that. You must have been playing the long game, waiting for the odds to get so stacked against you that one bet would set you up for life. Smart. Real smart.”</p><p>“Except,” the first man said, leaning forward until she could smell his rancid breath. “You shoulda left when you had the chance. Shoulda made a run for it.”</p><p>“You can’t hurt me,” Olivia lied, doing her best to hide how her voice was shaking. “It’s in the rules.”</p><p>“You think these fancy shits care about you? You’re a cheater, girl. You’re nothing but a rat to them.”</p><p>“Ain’t no one gonna miss a rat when it gets stomped against the ground. Or maybe we should poison you, rat, leave you in the street where they can see what happens to cheats like you.”</p><p>The man beside her grabbed her beneath the arm, making her cry out as he wrenched her up from her seat. She felt the hand on her shoulder tighten, pinching her nerves and making her seize up as the pressure grew more intense.</p><p>“I got debts to pay, girl, and that little trick you pulled is my ticket out of this hole. Let’s take this outside. No need to -”</p><p>“Fixer!”</p><p>A woman’s voice carried over the sounds of the racetrack, stunning the world to silence. The pain in Olivia’s shoulder vanished, as did the pain in her arm, but she still found herself unable to catch her breath. Even through all that, fearing for her life and blind with pain, she knew that voice.</p><p>The man in front of her knew it, too. “Shit. Uh. We found us a cheat, miss. Just taking care of business. Nothing to worry about.”</p><p>“Oh, I’m not worried, and I so appreciate your efforts to keep our little establishment honest. I do so love a clean house. But what’s a house without rules, Fixer?”</p><p>Silence followed the almost lazy question, broken only by the slow, implacable tap of shoes against wooden steps, descending from the press box with all the certainty of a god walking amongst mortals. Or, in this case, a devil.</p><p>One of the other raiders shifted nervously. “Is that - is that a riddle, or -”</p><p>“Shut the fuck up!” the one called Fixer hissed. “I - I don’t know, miss.”</p><p>“It’s chaos, Fixer, just four walls and a roof and everyone just doing as they please. There’s no order to it. Now, I know remembering all these tedious do’s and don’ts is hard when you can barely count your fingers, so I kept it simple. I gave you three little rules. It’s such a small number, such a magic number.” Olivia was now staring at the ground, refusing to look up and acknowledge the woman even as she came toward her. “Can you tell me, Fixer, what my third rule is?”</p><p>Black shoes, immaculate in the midday sun, appeared at the edge of Olivia’s vision as they came to a stop not ten feet away. Fixer answered meekly. “All problems go to you, miss.”</p><p>“Ah, so you do remember! I was worried no one had explained that to you on your way in. But that does mean that you were going to break that annoying little rule, weren’t you?” She could almost hear the grin spreading over the woman’s face. “And you know what happens to people who break my rules, don’t you?”</p><p>“Yes, ma’am.”</p><p>“Good.” There was a long pause as the five raiders, once so terrifying and unstoppable, now waited to be crushed like ants beneath an uncaring heel. “Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”</p><p>“This girl is a -” Fixer audibly flinched before he finished the accusation which made Olivia wince in turn. She expected to hear his body hit the ground a second later but instead she heard him keep going, his voice lowered again. “Sorry. Won’t happen again.”</p><p>“That’s the answer I was looking for. I’m a very forgiving woman, you know. It must be the good mood I’ve suddenly found myself in. If you’d hurt this girl, my dear Fixer, you would have spent a very long time wishing you were dead. It seems you got lucky. Didn’t he, friend?”</p><p>The raiders all turned to Olivia, who, still staring at the ground, managed the smallest nod.</p><p> </p><p>“Your debts are paid, Fixer.”</p><p>“They - they are?”</p><p>Those shoes came closer, revealing black socks and pressed black pants that were impossibly clean as they stopped right beneath her nose. “Oh, yes, yes they are. You’ve brought me such a lovely gift, after all, I couldn’t possibly ask you for anything more.”</p><p>Still refusing to look up, Olivia instead caught Fixer’s eye, who was now looking at her with cautious curiosity. “Sure. Happy to help.”</p><p>“You’re still banned from my track, of course, and if I can still see you in the next ten seconds, your gambling addiction will be the least of your worries.” The sound of scrambling feet and men jumping over chairs would have been hilarious any other time. A laugh, deep and husky and terrifyingly familiar filled the air instead of hers. “Ah, and they’re already gone. That just leaves the two of us, doesn’t it, pet?”</p><p>Olivia kept staring at the ground. If she stared hard enough, it would open up and swallow her and she could go on living like the mole rat she was. The woman she refused to name chuckled again, humming to herself as more footsteps approached Olivia from behind.</p><p>She recognized the next voice as the woman from the betting counter. “What do you want to do with this cheat, boss?”</p><p>“Cheat? What makes you think this lovely girl could do something so terrible as that?”</p><p>Her lips pressed together in a fine line, she bit forced herself to stay quiet while the other woman paused. “With respect, were we watching the same race?”</p><p>“If we were, we saw very different things, but I suppose that’s because I know just what to look for. Can I assume those men were harassing her with good reason? You’ve paid out her winnings? Splendid. You can go back to the counter, there’s no need to worry yourself over this one anymore.”</p><p>The woman behind her shuffled. “I still think this one’s trouble. That shit with the robot? That ain’t normal.”</p><p>“If you had the slightest idea of how not normal that actually is, you would be thanking me for keeping this girl out of your hair. She’s a real handful, you know. Dangerous if she wants to be. But that’s why you need someone like me.”</p><p>A hand reached forward, pinching her chin between the thumb and forefinger, and at last Olivia was forced to look up and admit that she was fucked.</p><p>Her eyes slowly climbed, noticing the pressed black pants first, then the white dress shirt with the top button undone, sleeves rolled up to show forearms with intricate tattoos racing up and down their length. She saw the thin black suspenders, the dark hair now hanging freely to the level of her chin, and the shining eyes of a woman who knew she was born to be in charge.</p><p>“See?” Nightshade purred, one hand tucked casually into her pocket, the other still cupping Olivia’s chin between her fingers. “You aren’t going to give me any trouble, are you, sweetness?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Self-Incrimination</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nightshade catches up with Olivia while Piper frantically tries to rescue her</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bits of burning robot fluttered to earth like flaming tinsel, making clouds of dirt rise up from where they came to rest. It was a spectacular explosion, but an even more spectacular distraction. With every eye now on the remains of the unfortunate racer, Piper adjusted her cap and darted across the open ground between the stands and the center of the track.</p><p>She was not the only one seizing her moment. A few mechanics were also hurrying across the field, jogging ahead of Triggermen that strolled lazily, not breaking their stride to point and laugh at the blazing wreck. She regretted not changing into her more robust travelling clothes, but she had been so busy daydreaming about her human lockpick that she had forgotten to grab them on the way out. Hopefully Olivia was somewhere out of sight, just keeping her head down and waiting for Piper to come get her. The girl probably could have gone home after they had seen what was happening, the job now changing from breaking and entering to eavesdropping and amateur spycraft, but the fresh air was good for her. As long as she didn’t make too many bets, everything would be fine.</p><p>The center of the track looked out of place inside the refurbished stands and high walls surrounding it. Wooden shacks and makeshift barriers were all that remained of the raider settlement that had once been here, their menacing appearance undercut slightly by the robots running circles around them. Now they housed the help, the ones responsible for maintaining the entertainment and keeping this place swimming in caps.</p><p>Hopping the guardrail, Piper darted past the first buildings before abruptly stopping, leaning against the wall, and taking her sweet time lighting a cigarette. She was just another helper, albeit a strangely dressed one, lazing about when she should have been working. No one here would recognize her hat. Still, on the off chance any of them could read, she tugged it off her head and took the beloved tag her sister had made and folded it into her pocket. The press, she thought, had gone undercover.</p><p>A few workers wandered by, sparing her little more than a glance and validating her excellent infiltration work. Hiding in plain sight was a Piper Wright specialty. In fact, she did it all the time. That was why she had so many stories about it failing, not because it was a bad idea or her stories got exposed, but because there were just too many examples for it not to have one or two bad results.</p><p>Anyway, until she got killed doing it, she would refuse to hear a word said against it. Smoke rising from between her fingers, she peered around from her shady corner to get a lay of the land. Most of the outlying buildings were empty, though a few figures sat under tattered awnings and enjoyed their front row seats. The building just in front of her was teeming with Wasters and looked to be a mess hall, judging by the clatter of plates and bottles inside. Real tableware. What an establishment this was.</p><p>Piper added another question to her growing list as she wondered which raider boss was in charge here. None of the ones she could name would provide this kind of comfort for their minions. The presence of plates implied a certain amount of order, more than was present in her own house most days. Unless she turned the corner to find servers in collars, she was starting to consider adjusting the tone of her article.</p><p>The notion proved short lived. She had hardly finished grinding the last of her smoke into the dirt when she noticed a familiar figure in the stands being surrounded by half a dozen very angry raiders. A small girl, hands raised in a meek defense, was being hauled to her feet and looked about to be taken out back when all those raiders turned toward a woman standing in the press box.</p><p>There was no chance in hell this woman was anything but the boss here. Wearing the Triggerman dress clothes, it was the first time Piper had actually seen them look good on anyone. Even from this distance, she was put-together and intimidatingly pretty.</p><p>And she was strolling right up to Olivia. Oh, that was bad.</p><p>Piper looked around for something to throw, a fight to start, anything that would help the girl get out of this alive. She found tools, scattered bits of wood and steel, a few discarded guns lying on a table that looked decidedly unreliable, and a whole lot of nothing. There was nothing for it but to start running toward the stands and hope she could get there before the poor girl got hurt.</p><p>As she started to run, she noticed a small group of mechanics pushing what remained of Piece o’ Junk in a wheelbarrow, and a very bad idea began to take shape as she changed course for the large shed that hopefully housed the racing bots.</p><p> </p><p>The press box looked very different from the rest of the racetrack and reminded Olivia quite a bit of the Mayor’s office in Diamond CIty. The front of the box was all business. Where the now glassless windows overlooked the track, a man sat at a desk with a microphone and spoke over the still-working stadium speakers. A few dozen men and women in fine clothes bustled around him, counting caps and doing all sorts of things Olivia assumed were sinister. They all paused as Nightshade entered, looking strangely at the dirty animal she had dragged in off the street.</p><p>Nightshade did not pause, leading her straight to the back of the box where a lounge was set up with very fine plush sofas, a coffee table, large rug, electric lights, ceiling fan, and even a quiet jukebox that piped away in the corner. She stopped near the wooden walls that had been erected for privacy and looked at the raiders enjoying the room’s comforts. This world’s casting director had made no effort to hide that these were the story’s main characters. They looked distinguished from the rest of the rabble, by virtue of outfit, weaponry, and sometimes hairstyle.</p><p>She hardly had time to look them over before Nightshade snapped “Out.”</p><p>Not one hesitated. If they were the main characters, Nightshade had written the screenplay. They moved toward the door, a few casting unhappy looks at Olivia as though this was all her fault.</p><p>Olivia was too busy to worry about that because, in the absence of anything more helpless to torment, Nightshade had turned on her. She found herself backed up against the wooden divider, its edge digging uncomfortably into her spine as the raider queen picked over her, long fingers running the length of her peacoat with the slow grace of a carving knife.</p><p>“You’ve changed your look,” Nightshade hummed, peeling the coat back enough to get a look at the jeans and old Nuka World shirt beneath. “That’s a shame. I liked you in blue.”</p><p>“Left it at home,” she managed to answer. She must have been allergic to the woman’s attention, so reliably did her throat close up around her.</p><p>It only closed further the more Nightshade’s lips curled into a smile. “I’m so glad these last few months have treated you so well. Of course, you will tell me everything that you’ve been doing. Whatever cold comforts your new home can offer, they are nothing compared to what I can give you here. It’s good to be royalty, princess.”</p><p>Tugging at her coat in a manner that only furthered her confusion, Nightshade brushed past her and sauntered into the now empty lounge. Olivia hesitated a moment before following, scarcely even acknowledging the idea of running away. She was not expected to do anything but follow Nightshade wherever she went, not because it was demanded at gunpoint, but because doing anything else would have been unthinkable. It only bothered her more that she felt the same way. Nightshade had just waltzed back into her life, all smiles and soft words, and reminded her that she had never been free, just allowed to wander off leash.</p><p>The left side of the room sported, among other things, what looked like an old Nuka machine, but unlike all the other ones she had seen since the bombs, this one was glowing cheerfully and humming with nostalgia. An old Nuka advertisement even rolled on the main display when Nightshade approached, though someone had long since figured out how to mute it. She reached into the refrigerated case and pulled out two glowing blue bottles. At least she was worth the good stuff.</p><p>Nightshade turned back to her and raised an eyebrow when she saw her still standing by the wall. “Well? Sit down.”</p><p>It wasn’t so much a demand as an expectation, a statement that Olivia would follow because disobeying was unthinkable. So Olivia did as she was told and sat in the most comfortable spot she could find. She made her way to one of the sofas, sitting down and accepting the proffered bottle, the glass hazy with frost. Her mouth watered just looking at it. Ice cold Nuka Quantum.</p><p>Olivia hadn’t realized it but she had seated herself exactly where NIghtshade wanted her to be, at the edge of the sofa nearest her chair. It was obviously hers. High-backed and upholstered in red, she looked like a queen as she folded herself into it, crossing her legs less like a lady and more like a woman used to snapping and pointing whenever she wanted something. She proceeded to twist the cap off between her fingers and flick it onto the table while Olivia struggled with hers awkwardly.</p><p>“What do you think of my new home? It’s a bit noisy during the day but you’ll find it’s much safer than the old brewery.”</p><p>Finally managing to twist the stubborn cap from the bottle, she tossed the cap close to Nightshade’s and enjoyed what she assumed was the only working Nuka machine left in the world, a machine Nightshade kept in her room. And they said she was lucky. “It’s something.”</p><p>The short response did nothing for Nightshade’s mood and her gaze reflected it. “I’m not in the habit of begging for anyone’s approval, even pretty things like you, but I did work rather hard on this. Reprogramming the robots was one thing, a thing very few people in the Commonwealth could pull off, but getting all these gangs in the same place without it turning into a bloodbath was taxing even for someone of my talents. It took a lot of convincing, a lot of arm-twisting - a lot of throat-cutting. And now they all sit so politely in the crowd. Teaching them not to shoot each other was almost as hard as teaching them not to shoot the robots when they lost. It makes taking their caps easier when I remember how much work it was building this place from the ground up.”</p><p>The mention of caps brought a twinkle to Nightshade’s eye and Olivia found herself taking a drink just to hide a little of her face. “I didn’t cheat.”</p><p>“Oh, I know you didn’t. You’re too sweet for that. But things do have a habit of blowing up around you.”</p><p>Nightshade tilted her head to the side and pulled that loose white shirt to the side, revealing the slope of her neck where it met her shoulder. She nearly looked away in embarrassment when she noticed the skin there was puckered and discolored, a white-pink scar in the loose circle. Her breath caught, remembering the minigun and the cry of pain she had heard before Lily dragged her off.</p><p>“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” she stammered.</p><p>“It’s not the first time I’ve been shot, princess. It’s not even the most recent. It was, however, very close to being the last. I’m pleased to see you came out without any similar scars, assuming Lily treated you like a proper lady? If she didn’t, I’d be happy to pay her another visit. Or did you burn down her house, too?”</p><p>Olivia felt herself bristle but found her unhappiness quashed with an uncaring glance. This must be how Big Green felt when she told him not to eat people. “No. She actually asked me to stick around, so maybe I just didn’t stay long enough to watch the roof fall in.”</p><p>Nightshade chuckled softly. “What a way you have with Wastelander women. Tell me, what could have possibly made you leave the comfort of an underground bunker? All the mold and stale snack cakes a girl could want and yet here you are.”</p><p>She unconsciously looked out toward the racetrack and prayed Piper was having a better time than she was. “There was someone else at the Stockpile. When I brought Lily back, I asked for her to be let go.”</p><p>“What a noble soul you are, princess.” Nightshade leaned forward, smile turning predatory. “Would this lucky girl happen to have a fondness for the written word? Is she, by chance, a journalist in a red trench coat, distinguishable from across a busy racetrack even when someone is providing so spectacular a distraction?”</p><p>Her heart climbed into her throat. “Please. She’s just -”</p><p>“Here for a story, I know, pet. It may surprise you that I’m something of an avid reader and as far as post-apocalyptic periodicals go, the Publick has done nothing but impress, but there’s a catch. Piper may mean well but her words have a tendency to touch on sensitive subjects, and the girl is anything but subtle. Like a brahmin loose in a chem lab, no matter how hard she tries to step softly, it isn’t long before the whole place goes up in brightly-colored flames. Between the two of you, I’m honestly having trouble imagining anything more damaging short of another nuclear war.” Nightshade tilted her head, giving the desperate Olivia an uncomfortable once-over. “As I told you before, I like you, and I take care of the things I like. But if you and your dear friend set another of my homes on fire, I’m going to be very upset with you, and whatever hole they dug for you in Diamond City won’t be deep enough to keep you safe from me. Assuming you don’t fall right back into my lap, which I have been so enjoying, by the way.”</p><p>The intense desire to run out the door and go shouting for Piper was defeated handily by yet another apathetic glance from Nightshade, and Olivia found herself unable to do much more than wiggle unhappily against the cushions. Nightshade seemed to find it terribly amusing and Olivia soon lost the energy to protest even that meekly. She found herself glancing at the door anyway, wondering what Piper was doing and whether she would be alright. She should have been doing something right now, saying something to convince Nightshade to let her live. If Piper got hurt, it would be her fault.</p><p>“What do you want with her?”</p><p>“The intrepid reporter? I’d love an interview. Normally, I imagine she’s in the position of power, asking all the hard questions and putting the screws to her victims, so I’d love to see what she does when she’s the one tied to a chair. She seems like someone who would put up a good fight.” A slow smile spread over Nightshade’s features as Olivia’s own face fell. “I’m only kidding, princess, though I do want to have a few words with her. My people will bring her in - as I said, she’s not exactly subtle - and they have strict orders to do it without harming her. She might get a few bruises, since she seems the type to bite and kick when someone tries to grab her, but that’s all. She’ll be back in Diamond City tonight, safe and sound.”</p><p>Part of her wondered if Nightshade, raider boss and ruthless killer, would lie to her for the sake of keeping her quiet. So far as Olivia could tell, the woman had at least two sides. The first was the one that had killed all those people in the brewery, shooting them full of darts and watching as they tore each other apart. That one scared her. That one would take the caps from her pocket, pump her full of drugs, and force her to run the races until her heart exploded, or something equally horrible.</p><p>The other Nightshade, the side that kept shimmering before her like a beautiful mirage, had fed her, spoke kindly to her of surviving in Diamond City, and had even taken a bullet for her. Looking at her now, head to one side, hair falling over one eye in what must have surely been a practiced pose, she wondered which one she was seeing now.</p><p>She hoped it was the second one because, at the moment, she looked like the queen of the world. “You mean that?”</p><p>“Of course I do, sweetness. I’m a civilized girl.” Nightshade kicked her legs out before leaning forward, elbows on knees in an eagerness reflected in her smile. “How about this? I’ll do you one better. Tell me why you’re here, what you’ve been up to, all the interesting ins and outs of Diamond City’s tedium, and I’ll show her to the door myself. No interview, and no one gets tied to any furniture, but not every afternoon can be perfect.”</p><p>Olivia managed a nervous chuckle. “I remember the way you had Lily set up. Didn’t look like a lot of fun.”</p><p>“Tom didn’t know how to show a girl a good time. You haven’t given me a chance.”</p><p>The familiar tightness in her throat returned, and she found it hard to even be angry about it. She had walked into that one. “Oh. Right.”</p><p>“So,” Nightshade gestured toward her invitingly. “Enlighten me. What brings you out to my corner of the Commonwealth? Apart from missing me, of course.”</p><p>She took a moment to clear both her throat and her head. “Piper wanted to know what was really going on here. She heard about the Triggermen taking it over and wanted to know more.”</p><p>“And you wanted to come along to see the sights?”</p><p>Lying had never been Olivia’s strong suit and Nightshade’s intense stare was definitely not making it any easier. She had to say something. Unless Nightshade had already worked out that a certain mole rat had the key to every lock in the city. Better to play it safe. “The other vault dweller was busy.”</p><p>“I’ll count myself lucky that she was. I’ve heard of her, you know, this evil twin of yours. Killed a lot of people in some vault downtown and rescued a missing private eye. She’s solely responsible for my sudden surplus of manpower, so I can’t say I’m too upset with her, but I have no desire to get in a shootout with her. From the sound of it, she’d put up quite a fight, if I gave her the chance.”</p><p>The thought of Nightshade and Nora trying to kill each other left Olivia feeling sorry for a world already ravaged by nuclear fire. Mankind had really done a number on the poor planet. It did not need the most violent parts of womankind adding to the damage.</p><p>She also very much wanted to avoid the awkwardness of picking a side to root for.</p><p>“If you expect me to believe she brought you along as her bodyguard, then you’re going to have to show me what you’ve learned in the last few months. I don’t see any guns hiding underneath that outfit of yours, but then again you’ve had such good luck disarming would-be murderers with a helpless look, so why change things now?”</p><p>“Does that include you?” she asked peevishly.</p><p>“Don’t be ridiculous. I was never going to murder you. At worst, we would have tried to trade you back to that vault of yours, the one you later mentioned was full of skeletons and friendly roaches. I suppose after that you would have been in a tough spot. Tom and his ilk wouldn’t have shown you much kindness after that and, if I didn’t like you so much, I might have turned the other cheek, written it off as just another cruelty this world so often forces on its more innocent citizens.” Nightshade again smiled, so sincere and safe and definitely not a murderous throat-cutter every other raider seemed too terrified to challenge. Anyone who didn’t fit that mold seemed to die off fairly quickly. “But I do like you. So maybe I would have shown you to Diamond City all the same, walked you right up to the door to make sure nothing happened to you on the way? Think what you will of me, Olivia, but I am not a murderer when I can help it, and I will never put a collar on another living thing. Not even a dog.”</p><p>Even in her most sincere moments, Nightshade was as intense as her name implied. Maybe Piper would be alright. Nightshade wouldn’t hurt her. Or sell her or anything like what Tom would have done to them. “I - thank you. I don’t know if I said that last time.”</p><p>“You did, princess, but it is sweet enough that I can stand to hear it twice. I don’t imagine it was easy coming back out here after what happened with Tom - or Lily, for that matter. Ms Wright must be just as persuasive off the page as she is in her writing.”</p><p>That was the truth. She still wasn’t sure how she got talked into coming here, but that was because she was still not ready to admit the convincing was largely internal. “I don’t know how she managed to talk me into this. But I guess it worked out.”</p><p>“I certainly think so,” Nightshade purred.</p><p>She vaguely remembered Nightshade claiming her as her property when Tom was threatening her with slavery. Collar or not, she had a distinct feeling that her decisions were not entirely her own anymore. “I heard someone in the stands talking about Diamond City. There’s a sentry bot they wanted being kept at the track, one with a mining laser.”</p><p>“That’s your big break? I could have told you that for free. Capper - I know, but not every name can be so elegant and imposing as mine - has been wanting revenge on Diamond City for longer than I’ve been around. That he still has a dozen idiots following him is a testament both to his own inadequacy and the Wasteland’s bizarre sense of humor. His plans have been getting less subtle as he’s aged, his latest being to melt through that big door of theirs and try to burn as many buildings as he can.” Nightshade huffed and looked disdainfully toward the stands where the offending raider might still have been watching the races. “It’s carnage for its own sake. Diamond City Security will get a nasty surprise but will cut his people to bloody ribbons the second they come into view. A more perfect plan for all the Wasteland’s crows and feral dogs could not have been conceived, though finding out that man was actually three stray dogs in a trench coat would hardly be surprising.”</p><p>Torn between taking comfort at Nightshade’s brusque dismissal of the plan and being horrified at the loss of life, Olivia indulged in a little more uncomfortable wriggling. “That’s good. I guess.”</p><p>“It’s not. If your new friend really wants to get to the bottom of this, tell her to look into who is selling old military equipment powerful enough to rip a hole in Diamond City’s walls - yes, the walls, where Capper would be drilling if he wasn’t three dogs in a trench coat.” Nightshade gestured irritably at the wall, presumably in the direction of Diamond City. “Sometimes I wish I had a little less ambition, you know? It would be so easy to knock a hole in those walls, turn the whole place into a raider camp to make Nuka World look like a blanket fort.”</p><p>Olivia wished very badly that she didn’t believe her so readily, that it wouldn’t have been so easy for her. But she had met McDonough, and she had met Nightshade, and Piper had told her all about the corruption in Diamond City Security.</p><p>Nightshade took notice of her obvious discomfort and soothed her with more quiet laughter. “Don’t worry, princess, my sights are aimed on things much larger than making the biggest pile of rubble in the Commonwealth. Diamond City is a very useful place to have around.”</p><p>“Oh. Good,” Olivia managed to croak out, some of the tension easing from her shoulders. “I just got a house there. And a job.”</p><p>“How domestic,” Nightshade chortled. “I hope you manage to stay out of trouble better than I did. Is McDonough still in charge? Kick him in the ass for me next time you see him. Tell him it’s a down payment on a whole lot more to come.”</p><p>Olivia snickered, imagining Piper and Nightshade taking turns whacking the large man with baseball bats like a misbehaving printer. The two would get along famously if the conversation stayed on him. “I’ll give him your best. I met him my first day there, after I fixed the boilers. I know, lucky me. Being the only one who remembers how everything works is, uh…”</p><p>Oops. Nightshade’s eyes were shining like quarters flipping in the moonlight. “Oh, don’t stop there. The story was just getting interesting. You were about to say some things that I heard about your angry friend, this Nora character, that came out of the same vault you did. There are the strangest rumors about her! They say she was some kind of pre-war experiment, a super soldier, someone made to keep fighting and winning even after the world had ended.”</p><p>Despite what she had said earlier, Olivia could practically feel a collar closing around her own neck, the leash wrapped lazily about Nightshade’s wrist. “Sure seems that way.”</p><p>“Now, you don’t exactly fit the mold of a murderous killbot, but you did know some very interesting things, things that no one from our slice of paradise could know. The way you opened the door at the brewery was something I tossed up to luck. I should have known better. You may be lucky, princess, but now I think you’re so much more than that.” Nightshade stood slowly, languidly, descending from her throne to lean against the sofa’s armrest, looming over Olivia. “How did you know how to open that door?”</p><p>All the blood rushed to her face as she tried to press herself further into the cushions. “I - I don’t -”</p><p>“And save yourself the trouble of lying to me. You’re terrible at it.”</p><p>She hated how true that was. “I used to work for a delivery company. We dropped packages off to places all across the state.”</p><p>Nightshade’s eyes widened just slightly, but from this close, it was enough to express just how intense her interest had become. “All over the state. And did you just happen to know that one code, pet, or are there more locked up in that pretty head of yours? Is that why our reporter brought you along? To open all the doors she couldn’t get through with a bobby pin?”</p><p>“Yeah. I, uh, I guess.” Olivia tried to swallow but her mouth had gone much too dry.</p><p>Even when she had opened that first door, when Nightshade had looked at all those shelves stacked with food, she had never seen anyone look at her like this. Not when the crow had taken away the quarter in midair, not when she had survived someone shooting at her from two feet away, never.</p><p>“And I thought you were the lucky one,” Nightshade whispered. “The way the world keeps dropping you right into my lap, I’m beginning to think it’s me.”</p><p>All Olivia could do was look up and squeak. “Please.”</p><p>“Oh, I know. I know it’s not what you had hoped to find here,” Nightshade’s hand snaked its way over her shoulder, fingers tangling in her hair as they brushed against her back. “But you have something I want - something I need very badly. It’s just a few doors that need opening, that’s all. Nothing dangerous. I’ll be right here, right next to you every step of the way. No one is going to hurt you. But this is something I need.”</p><p>Her voice dropped to a hiss as she spoke of need and a look of pure desperation began to gleam in her eyes. “Please. I don’t mind helping. I’m sorry about the race - and thank you for what you did, with the raiders - but I just… I can’t do this. I don’t belong here. I could give you the  code! I’ll tell you what it is, where to go, everything.”</p><p>Nightshade continued to run her fingers along her back in a way that traced possession through her clothes and etched it on her skin. “I wish I could say yes, but we both know better, don’t we? You know the old world better than I do. Is this code enough for every door? Were there none that needed fingerprints? Badges? They were so fond of biometrics in your time.”</p><p>Olivia felt herself sinking into the woman’s touch even as she pleaded. “I’m not lucky, not like you think. I’m not like Nora or Piper or you. I can’t even fight.”</p><p>“You won’t have to, not while I’m here.”</p><p>She wanted to believe that. She wanted to believe this would all be over in a matter of days. “What about Piper?”</p><p>“That’s up to you, pet.” Nightshade’s hand moved to her shoulder, her grip growing firm. “If you want her to stay, she stays. If you want her back home by dinner, that’s where she’ll be. This is the only favor I will ever ask of you. You help me clean my house, I won’t just send you back to yours, I’ll build you a castle with my bare hands. Something worthy of royalty. Just stay with me a little longer. There’s so much about this new world of ours you need to understand.”</p><p>Nightshade rose from the armrest, suddenly looking at something only she could see, leaving Olivia to sit and watch helplessly. Walking to the wooden divider, she stared out the press box window, toward the horizon, fists clenched. This was a new Nightshade, a very angry one, and not one Olivia had any desire to see more of.</p><p>She managed to make her legs move, forcing them to carry her from the couch to where Nightshade was standing. If Nightshade noticed her coming, she didn’t say anything. Olivia came up beside her, stopping just behind her shoulder to keep herself from being seen. She was not feeling quite that brave. “I thought you said you wouldn’t keep anyone against their will.”</p><p>Nightshade blinked, looking back to Olivia as though surprised she was still here, and for the briefest moment, she actually looked hurt. “I know. I am sorry about this. I don’t want to force you to stay, but I need you, Olivia. I’ll make it worth your while - information, caps, favors, whatever it is you want, I’ll give you anything you’d like. Just help me with this one, small thing. Please. I’ve never begged for help from anyone before, making you the only woman I’ve ever done this for. Another exclusive club for you to join, hm? Don’t break my heart by saying no.”</p><p>Even begging, Nightshade was intimidating enough for Olivia to realize this was going to happen one way or another, so she might as well be comfortable while it happened. She felt herself surrender, the tension easing from her shoulders, and watched as Nightshade won. It probably happened all the time, but the victory in those eyes was a sight to behold all the same. She should never have tried to fight.</p><p>The press box shook, a blast of wind and deafening noise buffeting the two of them and drawing a sharp yelp of surprise from Olivia’s throat. Nightshade didn’t move, didn’t gasp, only narrowed her eyes in rage. “What did you do?”</p><p>“I didn’t do anything!”</p><p>Grabbing her by the front of the shirt, Nightshade hauled her to her feet and pushed her against the wall. Mole rat that she was, Olivia squeaked as her feet briefly left the ground. “Stay.”</p><p>“What -”</p><p>Her words cut off as Nightshade pushed her against the wall, releasing the grip on her shirt and bringing a finger up beneath her nose. “Be a good girl and stay here. I’ll be back when I fix whatever our dear friend Ms Wright is breaking, and then we’re going to have a chat about our continued relationship.” Grabbing the familiar syringer from where it sat by her chair, she loaded a dart from her belt and flashed a smile. “And would you look at that; I get to tie someone to a chair today after all.”</p><p>“Wait -”</p><p>“Stay! Or I’ll make it two.”</p><p>Without another word, Nightshade stormed out to the sound of more explosions. People were shouting at each other but so far there was no gunfire or screaming. She hoped Piper was alright and enjoying her last moments of freedom before Nightshade caught her. Or, if not, she hoped that she enjoyed being tied to a chair.</p><p>She could have run out to help. Nightshade was gone, the press box was in chaos, and there were plenty of exits for her to slip out. Unless someone caught her or warned Nightshade. It would have also meant her trekking back to Diamond City alone, a prospect that did not exactly entice her. If Nightshade caught up with Piper, and it seemed impossible to hide from someone like that, she might be able to keep her from being hurt. Standing between her and Nightshade was about all the protection she could offer, but if Nightshade really needed her help and was intent on keeping her around, maybe she could use that to keep Piper in one piece.</p><p>So, leashed once more, Olivia played the good girl, found a seat, and stayed.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Safeword</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Piper creates a distraction to help Olivia escape but things don't go according to plan</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Come on, come on,” Piper tapped frantically at the keyboard, resisting the overpowering urge to smack the computer monitor. “Come on! Stupid pre-war pile of scrap. Password. Is. Always. Password!”</p>
<p>
  <i>Login attempt failed.</i>
</p>
<p>“Come on!” Shushing herself before she drew more attention, Piper continued in a hoarse whisper. “I will rip you apart bit by sparking bit and throw every last piece in the ocean you Institute-loving, over-engineered calculator.”</p>
<p>The password, unlike so many other raider passwords, was not password. Apparently, these raiders were just slightly smarter than the average gang. That was fine. She could outwit these idiots.</p>
<p>“Okay, let’s try… caps. Nope. Uh, bloodsport. Money? TriggermenRule. Fuck! What about guest? Oh, admin!”</p>
<p>None of the usual suspects turned up for her, and Piper was left to grit her teeth and curse at the obstinate terminal. She wasn’t a hacker. She could hardly work her own terminal well enough to type out her articles. Nick said that she could probably figure out how to print her articles directly from her terminal to the page but she insisted that her computer lacked that particular functionality.</p>
<p>There wasn’t any use pretending now. Piper Wright was an expert on the page, but she was useless when it came to computers. Why did she think this was a good idea? She should have just gone up to help Olivia, talked her way out of whatever the girl had gotten herself into.</p>
<p>Just a few more. “EasyCityDowns? No. RobotRaces? No. LetMeIn? Nope. Ugh! Fine, have it your way!”</p>
<p>She again smacked the offending terminal, giving it one last bit of abuse before she turned around to go find her missing vault dweller.</p>
<p>“That damn thing giving you trouble?” a man’s voice interrupted before she had turned all the way around.</p>
<p>Her surprise stopped her even from reaching for her pistol and probably saved her from blowing her cover. The robot maintenance area looked like an old stable, all made of wood and with large wooden dividers separating out where the Triggermen stored their moneymakers. Sauntering in from the far end of the stable was a man dressed in a mechanic’s blue jumpsuit and wearing a battered fedora. It looked ridiculous, prompting another moment of shocked silence that allowed him to continue his approach.</p>
<p>He was almost in front of her when she recovered her voice. “Yeah. Boss asked me to take a look at the diagnostics for the robot that just blew. What was its name? Piece o’ Shit?”</p>
<p>The man snorted. “Yeah, that’s about right. Let me have a look. This thing can be fickle about taking the right password. You have to enter it twice most days.”</p>
<p>“Quality establishment,” Piper quipped, taking out another smoke and lighting it as lazily as she could. She found the motion both soothed her and distracted those inclined to be distracted. This man was so inclined, eyes lingering on her fingers and lips a bit too long. Not really what she was after at the moment but she still enjoyed being able to turn it on when she had to. “I’ve been here thirty minutes and the most impressive thing I’ve seen so far is the woman in charge.”</p>
<p>“You’ve got a good eye. Don’t fuck with the Bookie and she won’t fuck with you. Give her what she’s owed and she’ll make sure you get your dues. That’s how it works.” The man sidled by, moving between her and the terminal in an almost deferential way. “I haven’t seen you around before. I’m sure I wouldn’t have missed someone like you. Where are you from?”</p>
<p>“Nowhere,” Piper said as she leaned against a nearby filing cabinet, watching the man through lidded eyes and playing with the cigarette between her fingers. “I mean that almost literally. Just another town in the middle of nowhere with thirty people, a brahmin, and a well. Fucking hell am I glad to be out.”</p>
<p>“You’re in the right place. You should have seen this dump just a few months ago. Before the Bookie got here and fixed it up, it was just a raider camp circling the drain. Look at it now. We’re raking in caps, food, weapons, whatever we want. You know a few days back a caravan came by wanting to set up shop? How fucking crazy is that?”</p>
<p>Piper let out a very sultry chuckle. “What’d you do with them?”</p>
<p>“Robbed them,” the man looked up and gave her a wicked grin. “Let them live, though, which I guess was a change from usual. Sent them on their way and told them to bring better stuff next time.”</p>
<p>The man finished pecking away at the keyboard, the screen fizzling out until he thumped it irritably with one fist and the blinking cursor returned. Piper pushed herself away from the cabinet silently, looming behind him as he navigated through the directories down to the diagnostics. She might not have known computers very well but she was a very quick reader and was able to remember the path down, noting the other folders with titles like Manual Overrides. That was probably a good place to start.</p>
<p>“Doesn’t matter much, though, does it? Bookie takes what she wants from the other raider gangs. The ones that don’t join us don’t last long. They get rubbed out real quick. The ones that do bring in caps, tribute, whatever they can carry. It’s good to live here, uh, what was your name again?”</p>
<p>Piper flicked the smoking butt to the floor. “Call me Piper.”</p>
<p>In one smooth motion, she snapped her leg forward, knocking the man’s knee into the table and hobbling him before levering him face-first into the metal desk. He went down without another sound, just the hollow banging of a hard head on a harder surface.</p>
<p>“I’ll be sure to quote you, and to take this Bookie of yours up on the offer if she ever needs rubbing out.”</p>
<p>Sorry no one was around to hear her wonderful quip, she returned her attention to the terminal. It was a good joke, too. She loved the Triggermen for their love of that outdated phrase. Applying it to what looked like a beautiful and domineering woman was just too easy. Piper was not afraid to admit she had a type. Competence was attractive in all its forms. And it didn’t hurt when it looked damn good in tight pants.</p>
<p>She tap-tap-tapped her way up and down the directory trees, searching for any useful programs to run. She wasn’t about to try reprogramming these things on her own. Actually, that would probably accomplish the same goal, so if all else failed, she might use that as a plan B.</p>
<p>No, she needed a distraction. She needed these robots to go absolutely haywire. If they went feral, great. If they exploded, fine. If they started racing uncontrollably around the track and forced their handlers to forcefully disable them, even that might give her enough time to slip into the press box and find the wayward Olivia. Hopefully the girl was continuing her lucky streak when it came to raider women.</p>
<p>She paused, cursor over one promising program, and frowned at what she might be interrupting up there, her previous joke souring in her mind. As lucky as Olivia was, she had not been that kind of lucky. Yet. Had she?</p>
<p>She wouldn’t ask. Unless it gave her an opportunity to rib her new best friend over her time in the distant future. All that time down in the boilers. Things must get pretty… steamy.</p>
<p>It would never be known if Piper’s terrible joke was what destroyed Easy City Downs, but the intrepid journalist would forever harbor her questions about the mutable nature of reality and really bad puns. Whatever the reason, the terminal locked up. Piper, distracted by her own humor, did not immediately notice, and so tapped the enter key again. And again. And continued to tap it until the taps turned to angry, full-force pecks with three fingers and gritted teeth.</p>
<p>Annoyed at the machine’s moment of deep thought, she took another whack at the side of the monitor, breaking the electronic dam and releasing the damning river. All those keystrokes, backed up in the terminal’s memory, flooded into its dutiful, unknowing processors, and things began to flash on the screen.</p>
<p>
  <i>Maintenance - Emergency Protocols - Failsafe - Confirm - CONFIRM - Detonation</i>
</p>
<p>“Uh.” It was all Piper could manage, and it made for terrible last words. At least the robots were out there and not at their charging ports.</p>
<p>The sound of humming began to grow louder, and soon enough Piper was forced to admit it the call was coming from inside the house. Closing her eyes, she turned, slowly, to face the rear of the stable. Beneath one of the large stable doors, likely a new addition made by the raiders, an orange glow was beginning to seep and grow brighter. Between where some of the boards had broken, she could see what looked like an old assaultron standing in its power station, head down as though lowered in existential horror as a bomb grew within its belly.</p>
<p>Piper shared in that horror, and spared only the briefest look at the man she had just laid out cold on the floor. At least he would go out sleeping. “Sorry.”</p>
<p>She barely made it to the door before the explosion ripped the back off the stable and blew roofing tiles skyward until they all but vanished from sight. Not that she was looking anyway. She was tearing madly through the alleyways between buildings, darting around the mess hall and toward the track where she could cross and reach the press box.</p>
<p>No sooner had she rounded the corner than she caught sight of the stands. All around the box, spectators stood in confusion, most clutching weapons and looking around nervously. Triggermen and mechanics were charging the track, submachine guns held at the ready. Some remained in the stands and began shouting for people to stay in their seats and for those responsible to surrender.</p>
<p>Piper had no intention of surrendering, not to them, and certainly not to the woman now standing at the front of the press box. The Bookie clutched a syringer in one hand and was pushing her hair back with the other in a posture that should not have been as intimidating as it was. But as Piper skidded to a stop, from across the racetrack their eyes met, and she knew she was fucked.</p>
<p>The woman took a single step down the wooden stairs before Piper turned around and began bolting for the stands. Olivia could handle herself with this woman gone. Even if she couldn’t, she would have to, because Piper was not sticking around to see what his woman had in store for her.</p>
<p>She vaulted a guardrail again and bolted out onto the track. Those spectators not already on their feet in confusion now rose and began shouting at her, as did several Triggermen now rushing from the stands where the Bookie was coming on like an assaultron with a grudge. The sight was terrifying and kept Piper looking over her shoulder when she should have been watching the track. She barely had time to throw herself to the dirt and avoid the same fate that befell Piece o’ Junk.</p>
<p>Screaming down the track, engines ablaze, were the remaining Mr Handys, orange light shining from their chassis like miniature suns. She hit the dirt just in time to get her back singed uncomfortably by one of the rockets but not enough for it to burn. The roar was deafening but the rapid beeping from inside the doomed automatons was loud enough to instill a healthy terror in her heart, muscling into the same cramped space as her fear of the Bookie.</p>
<p>The beeping abruptly stopped and the world turned to an all-consuming blast that rendered her deaf and dumb. She could only curl up into a ball and hope the debris skipping through the dirt around her continued to miss. Dirt kicked up by the flying parts caught her in the face and eyes and a stray piece of metal cracked painfully against her shoulder, but she survived long enough to at least raise her head from the ground to peer behind her.</p>
<p>A column of smoke and dirt obscured the main stands, mercifully hiding her from the woman she was certain was still coming. The stands she could see, the ones that ran around the length of the track, were filled with patrons looking increasingly nervous, some of whom were now nursing wounds or shouting for stimpacks.</p>
<p>Her ears ringing, Piper made good on her opportunity, getting to her feet with a groan and hobbling her way toward the far end of the track. She didn’t notice her limp until she nearly went down on the first step. Something must have struck her ankle hard enough to wrench it out of place. Shit. That was the last thing she needed.</p>
<p>The far side of the track was mostly empty and she managed to hop-skip-drag herself to the guardrail and sit down behind a shed. A glance at her foot told her it was at least still on the right way.</p>
<p>“Not broken,” she prayed, poking it tentatively with a finger. “Okay. You’ve done worse. Just - just set it back in place. Oh, this is gonna suck. One. Two. Threeee-hee-oohmygod.”</p>
<p>She took a short moment to catch her breath, vision fading back in from the white of nearly passing out. The press never lied; that had sucked.</p>
<p>More shouting from the stands told her this was far from over. At least she had gotten Olivia out of harm’s way, or at least she hoped she had. The rampaging Deathclaw-woman was now after her, and Piper was confident she would prove much more difficult prey than Olivia. She knew the Wasteland, she had outrun super mutants, she had fought radroaches for dinner, sometimes eating them along with whatever she had fed her little sister. Life had been rough out here. It put edges on you. She loved Olivia for not having those jagged spines to protect her, but sometimes a girl needed a little armor.</p>
<p>As the shouting was joined by speculative gunfire, Piper stood and tested her ankle. “Okay. Time to go.”</p>
<p>She scuttled to the side of the shed, peering around to search for the woman who was still chasing her. The dust was still settling from the explosion, and of the Bookie, there was no sign.</p>
<p>“Looking for someone?”</p>
<p>She spun, drawing her sidearm and pointing it toward the voice. Too slow. Someone caught her wrists, pulling the gun free so easily that she was left staring at her hands for a moment before aiming a kick at what she could now see was the same, terrifying spectre that had haunted her from the stands.</p>
<p>The Bookie caught her leg easily, grinning as she pulled Piper off balance with an undignified yelp. She had hardly managed to find her feet before she aimed a punch that she already knew had a snowball’s chance in hell. Her wrist found empty air, and the Bookie found her wrist, twisted her arm behind her back, and levered her face-first into the side of the shed with a resounding <i>clang.</i></p>
<p>“Now, that wasn’t very nice,” a silky-smooth voice purred in her ear.</p>
<p>Piper made a noise of agreement into the corrugated steel siding. “Yeh, yer tellin’ me.”</p>
<p>She tried to pop her jaw but only managed to make more pained noises as the Bookie pulled her arm up further behind her back, pushing her leg into Piper’s knee and leaving her as helpless as though she were hanging from a string.</p>
<p>“Was - was that your robot? I really, really didn’t mean to do that. It was a misunderstanding. Honest. We can work something out. Come on, we’re all friends here.”</p>
<p>The woman’s chin settled comfortably on her shoulder, letting out a long sigh that raised goosebumps on Piper’s neck. “You really are a loud one, aren’t you?”</p>
<p>“So I’m - ow - so I’m told. It’s a real problem, actually.”</p>
<p>“I can imagine. Now, as you might imagine, I’m in a bit of a bad mood. It’s a lot of things all piling up and every single one seems to be your fault. Avoiding my people, blowing up my robots, and can I assume killing a few of my poor mechanics?”</p>
<p>Piper tried to shift against the woman’s weight but only managed to move her foot pitifully against the wall. Her left hand was free but it was gradually sliding lower with the rest of her as she fell back limply against the human sentry bot. Torn between lying and making a very sincere apology, she made a few noncommittal, unhappy noises.</p>
<p>“Then listen to me very carefully. I have half a mind to pump you full of psycho and see how many laps you can run before your heart explodes. It would entertain the crowd and probably make me back some money.” She yelped again as the Bookie pulled her away from the wall, spun her around, and slammed her right back to where she was, this time with a very sharp knife at her neck. “Anyone else but you, Piper Wright. Anyone else would have died very unpleasantly. But you are so very lucky.”</p>
<p>Her eyes drifted pointedly to the knife at her neck, point resting against her beloved scarf. “Uh. Does that mean -”</p>
<p>“It means you are going to come with me - quietly. We’re going to walk up to the press box to see our mutual friend, the person who is apparently responsible for saving your life twice now.”</p>
<p>“If you -” Her interruption got the point of the knife shoved against her bare skin and she wisely bit off the rest of her empty threat and lowered her voice. “She’s a vault dweller. She didn’t do anything.”</p>
<p>The Bookie actually smirked. “You and I both know that isn’t true. She’s much more than that. She’s lucky, and right now that luck is what’s keeping me from doing something violent. Olivia is safe, which you’ll see for yourself soon enough, and in a much more comfortable position than you’re about to be in, so I’d suggest worrying about your own skin more than hers.”</p>
<p>Piper knew good advice when she heard it and settled back against the wall, not in comfort but in surrender. A whole lot of things were starting to make sense. “You must be Nightshade.”</p>
<p>“Oh, does my reputation precede me? I’d love to hear all about what Olivia’s been saying behind my back. All good things, I hope? Well, it doesn’t matter. You’ll tell me soon enough. As I said, we’re going to be walking back up to meet our sweet vault dweller, and on the way, I’m going to be thinking of some suitably horrible things to do to you.” The knife rose in front of her face meaningfully. “If you do anything I don’t like, that just gives me more time to get creative, doesn’t it?”</p>
<p>A font of creativity herself, Piper decided not to provide any undue inspiration to the raider queen Olivia had been so eager to avoid talking about. It wasn’t hard to see why and Piper had only been around her for a few moments. She also was apparently much less charming than Olivia had been, and so spent most of the walk quietly praying that her very favorite vault dweller found a way to get her out of yet another mess.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Olivia behaved herself. Even listening to the distant, hollow thumps of things exploding and waiting anxiously for people to start shooting at each other, she stayed where Nightshade had left her.</p>
<p>But even the best intentions and intimidations eventually fell to boredom. She quickly argued herself off the couch and over to the Nuka machine for another bottle, reasoning that she was still staying in the room and that was the important part. A few minutes later, she lawyered her way over to the bookcase, though this was more genuine curiosity than idleness. Nightshade was supposed to have fewer facets than she did, and among the hundreds of books were dozens of titles that made her wonder who this stranger was when she wasn’t kidnapping journalists and vexing vault dwellers.</p>
<p>Nothing on the shelf screamed savage murder queen. In fact, there were a good number of books she recognized from her college days. A few volumes on robots and programming were unsurprising but still drove Olivia far from that particular shelf. There were plenty of others to choose from, each one holding biographies, historical accounts, almanacs, and - was that a romance novel?</p>
<p>Olivia shot a glance to the doorway and, finding it empty, plucked the book from the shelf in a feat of extraordinary courage. It was! The cover was a woman in heavy winter clothes curled up beside a blazing fire and, in the shadows, a second woman draping a cloak over her. <i>Heart of Ice.</i> Romance novels, she realized, probably invested far more in enticing covers than titles, which was an understandable decision.</p>
<p>She put it back on the shelf and filed it away under things to bring up when it was safe. In this case, being safe involved being on another continent and calling from an untraceable burner phone, but she knew better than to try and get it out of her head.</p>
<p>The rest of the shelf held other hidden gems. She found an old fantasy epic she had read as a teenager, all nine volumes battered but present, some science fiction she had always meant to read, and a collection of comic books stacked neatly at the edge of the shelf almost completely hidden from view. At least the human key would have ways to entertain herself while Nightshade decided what lock to shove her in next.</p>
<p>She was absently pulling another book off the shelf when two sets of footfalls pulled her away, forcing her to tuck the book away in her jacket in sudden panic. Before she could come up with a suitable lie, in walked a very nervous Piper Wright, followed closely by a very angry Nightshade.</p>
<p>The former was promptly shoved down into a chair, cringing as Nightshade brought her hand down on her shoulder. “Hey, Blue. How’s it going up here?”</p>
<p>One look at Nightshade told her that she probably shouldn’t answer the question. The woman looked ready to rip Piper’s head off and play kickball with it and the brief glance she spared for Olivia offered not much opportunity to persuade her otherwise. She still tried, giving her a pleading look while still doing her best to behave quietly.</p>
<p>Nightshade did not look impressed. “Quiet. And you were being so good on the way over.”</p>
<p>“Hardest two minutes of my life.”</p>
<p>“I can imagine. If you just want to make noise for its own sake, I can think of much more interesting ways to make that happen, but something tells me we don’t have that much time before we’re interrupted again.” Nightshade reached behind her back and threw something at Olivia that made a metal clank as it hit her in the chest. She barely managed to get her hands out in time to catch it before it fell to the floor. “Be a dear and put those on Miss Wright for me, would you?”</p>
<p>Piper looked from Olivia to the four metal rings and back again, still saying nothing. Her own gaze flicked between Nightshade and Piper, scarcely acknowledging what she was being asked to do. “Why?”</p>
<p>“Because I’m the jealous type. I think she’s a bit distracted and I want her undivided attention. We don’t have a lot of time, if I’m any judge, before things get very exciting around here, and if Miss Wright doesn’t make me happy between now and when things start exploding again, well, I guess she’ll be staying in that chair, won’t she?” Nightshade loomed over Piper, holding her gaze and tilting her head like an owl looking over a mouse. “Oh, don’t worry, I’ve heard all about how good you are with your hands and I’m assuming you have an ongoing relationship with a good pair of handcuffs. So, let’s make this a bit of a challenge and see how you do with two. Cuff her wrists to the chair legs. Let’s see how long it takes her to wiggle out this.”</p>
<p>What choice did she really have? Piper gave her a very comforting look as she approached, obligingly moving her hands down to the wooden legs of the chair. “So, that’s a ‘not so good’, I take it?” she asked cheerfully as the first cuff tightened around her wrist.</p>
<p>“I guess not. I’m sorry,” Olivia mumbled as she moved to the other side of the chair. She didn’t tighten the cuffs much, just enough to make them hang off Piper's wrists convincingly.</p>
<p>“It’ll be alright, Blue,” Piper murmured, calmer than she should have been, before she looked up at Nightshade. “Usually a girl has to buy me dinner first.”</p>
<p>“That’s something I reserve for long-term relationships,” Nightshade hummed, putting one hand on Olivia’s shoulder and guiding her away from the chair. She shouldn’t have been surprised when the raider sauntered behind Piper’s back and wrapped one hand around her wrist, the cuff audibly tightening as she did. “Right now, you’re just a one night stand, but if you play your cards right maybe you and I can make this a regular thing.”</p>
<p>Piper winced as the other cuff tightened. “Do I get a safeword?”</p>
<p>“Sorry.” Nightshade gave Olivia an entirely inappropriate look as she wandered in front of Piper again. “That’s your safeword. Say you’re sorry and, if I think you mean it, I might not toss you out the window, chair and all.”</p>
<p>“You said you’d let her go.” In an out of body experience, Olivia tried to distance herself from the physical body that was stupid enough to interrupt Nightshade. It did not seem conducive to a long and happy life. She could only watch as this other, suicidal Olivia kept talking. “I’ll help with whatever you need, like I promised, but you said you would let her go.”</p>
<p>Even in her considerably worse position, Piper still found sympathy enough to groan. “Oh, Blue, what did you get yourself into this time?”</p>
<p>Nightshade ignored Piper and settled into her familiar stance of unassailable confidence. “That was before you started breaking my things. As I told your friend on the walk over, those robots were more than just a source of limitless income, they were peacekeepers. Have you seen what happens when the unwashed masses grow bored? I have, and judging by her expression I imagine young Miss Wright has, too. Keeping them in line and moving in the right direction will take a lot of work and a lot more caps. How much do you keep in your pockets, hm? Because I have so many exciting ways for you to dig your way out of this hole and I’m curious which one you’ll pick. After all, you destroyed their entertainment, so it’s only fair you take its place.”</p>
<p>Piper swallowed but kept a brave face for the most part, which was more than Olivia could manage. She didn’t say anything, just tried to hold Nightshade’s gaze.</p>
<p>“You said you needed me.”</p>
<p>“And right now that need is the only thing keeping me from acting on these creative urges of mine.” Nightshade looked Piper up and down one more time before tugging off her press cap, tossing it lazily in one hand. “How did you survive out here before our dear Olivia came along? Did you have a supply of eager vault dwellers that ran interference for you or is this a new development in your life?”</p>
<p>“Blue? She’s just here for the races. Come on, I’ve been in worse spots than this. Do your worst. Give me five minutes with those raiders out there, I’ll have them eating out of my hand.”</p>
<p>“Clearly. She was just telling me about her daring rescue, slipping between my fingers and falling into your waiting arms. How lucky for you. But I remember warning you about making noise, so what do you say you be a good listener and I don’t have to see how much of that scarf I can fit in your mouth?”</p>
<p>Between Nightshade’s eager grin and a few more pathetic jangles of the handcuffs, Piper seemed to find the demands reasonable. “Okay. I can do that. Tastes terrible, honestly.”</p>
<p>“Does this sort of thing happen a lot?”</p>
<p>“Enough that I should start probably washing it.”</p>
<p>Nightshade narrowed her eyes, holding Piper’s stare long enough for Olivia to grow uncomfortable. Piper refused to shy away, her own expression defiant and almost eager. It wasn’t even the same face she had made when faced with being kneecapped and fed to a behemoth. Maybe she was just hiding the fear better this time, but she almost looked excited.</p>
<p>Olivia cleared her throat. “What if I gave you the caps back?”</p>
<p>The staring contest over, Nightshade turned easily to face her other victim while Piper slumped in her chair and gave her a worried look. She quickly regretted taking the spotlight. “Caps?”</p>
<p>“The ones I won off the race. That would help, wouldn’t it?”</p>
<p>Nightshade chuckled and turned back to Piper. “Is that how much the free press is worth, nowadays? The princess here thinks your life is worth six thousand caps, Piper. Between you and me, I would have paid twice that and called it a steal.”</p>
<p>“You won -” Piper’s shocked outburst was cut short as her cap flopped against her face, tossed her way by an uncaring Nightshade. She paused to blow the hair out of her eyes before smirking. “Well, can’t blame her for starting low after everything I’ve put her through.”</p>
<p>She could have reached out and strangled Piper for not taking this more seriously but at least Nightshade was smiling. “It’s all I have. I told you, I’ll help. Just let her go. Okay?”</p>
<p>Nightshade sauntered closer, looking her over strangely. Between her own natural slouch and the woman’s overpowering demeanor, Nightshade seemed to tower over the diminutive dropout turned time traveller. “Paying me off with my own caps, pet?” Piper silently repeated the word and gave her a look that implied they would be discussing this later. “What a bold play, and in my own home, no less. Not that I’ll turn such a tempting offer down. Thank you for contributing to the continued success of my little business venture and, by extension, the civilization of our beautiful Commonwealth.”</p>
<p>Queen of the castle, Nightshade extended one elegant hand and demanded her tribute without another word. Olivia picked up one heavy roll of caps after another, pulling them from pockets inside her coat and piling them up in Nightshade’s hand. She hadn’t even gotten the chance to count them.</p>
<p>Behind Nightshade’s back, Piper looked heartbroken. “Could’ve stayed fed for years off that. Hell, we could’ve bought a new house. Or gotten a new printing press.”</p>
<p>“And instead you have your life,” Nightshade replied easily, hefting the cloth sleeves before setting them down on the table behind her. She looked back at Olivia, palming the last sleeve and looking mischievous. “Five thousand should cover us well enough. And you did put on a spectacular show.”</p>
<p>She barely managed to catch the heavy sleeve as a thousand caps thumped against her chest. Piper’s eyes went wide. “Thank you.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I have so missed your manners.” Nightshade reached out and ran her fingers through Olivia’s hair, pushing it back behind her ear. “But we should get on to business. I’m sure Miss Wright is growing tired of her current seating arrangements. I have been looking for someone to open a door for me. Two doors, in fact, but your code will suffice to open the first. The second is in an old tv station. There’s a raider gang that operates out of the warehouse across the street, but they won’t be a problem by the time we get there.”</p>
<p>“Hey! Do you think I’m just going to let you drag her around the Commonwealth like this?”</p>
<p>“Were you hoping to get a monopoly on that, Miss Wright?” Nightshade asked with a touch of annoyance. Piper had the decency to look embarrassed and Nightshade rolled over her before she could protest any further. “You’ll be perfectly safe with me and my crew. They know the Wasteland better than anyone alive, and anyone who knew it better is no longer around to claim otherwise. They’ve fought gunners, super mutants, mirelurk queens, and everything else this wonderful world could throw at them. They’re very good, and I’m better.”</p>
<p>At this point, Olivia was having a hard time arguing. Shot in the neck and she was right back on her feet, bringing the Wasteland to heel and making herself a fortune all the while. She could honestly do worse. Diamond City might have its walls and lights, but this place certainly had its comforts, as well as its temptations.</p>
<p>Nightshade was watching her through entirely-too-pleased eyes. “The code?”</p>
<p>“Four two zero, six nine.”</p>
<p>There was a very long pause. Piper blinked owlishly a few times, staring at the floor and frowning in disbelief. Nightshade arched a single eyebrow. “I wonder if the ancients knew what their legacies would be on that October morning.”</p>
<p>“We didn’t have time for anything more appropriate,” Olivia replied feebly.</p>
<p>“So you only behaved when someone was watching? I should have guessed.”</p>
<p>She ignored that deliberately and gave Piper as calm a smile as she could manage, which was probably akin to a grimace of indigestion but at least she was trying. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be back before Nat knows I’m gone.”</p>
<p>“You’ll certainly be free to leave, if you still want to,” Nightshade purred, a deep laugh underscoring her words. “But I’m always willing to make room for a pretty vault dweller. Now, if there’s nothing else -”</p>
<p>“Nightshade!” All three of them looked toward the door, Piper being forced to crane her neck painfully around the back of her chair, as a woman with pink hair and an assault rifle jogged into the room.</p>
<p>Nightshade grimaced. “Right on time, isn’t he?”</p>
<p>“Just like you said. No sign of Wire, but his people are on the beach and coming this way.”</p>
<p>Olivia looked to Nightshade, who looked almost bored, and to Piper, who looked very uncomfortable, before asking “Who?”</p>
<p>The pink-haired woman gave her a look reserved exclusively for mole rats demanding equal rights. Nightshade had the decency to provide the somewhat unhelpful reply “Imagine Tom but if he smelled like fish and self-loathing.”</p>
<p>Piper at least continued to speak her language. “Raider boss out of Libertalia, a bunch of old pre-war boats they lashed together into a colony.”</p>
<p>“You should see it during storms,” Nightshade added cheerfully. “Living on a ship seems miserable enough, but living on a shipwreck? If nothing else, the man has a flair for the dramatic. Libertalia. What a name.”</p>
<p>“What should we do?” Pink-hair asked.</p>
<p>“All those drills weren’t just so I could see you out of breath. Take positions in the houses and let the welcoming committee say hello. When they ask if he’s here to discuss terms, and whatever chem-addicted psychopath he’s sent us this time starts screaming about respect, arm the mines and watch the fireworks. They’ll get the message, and so will anyone left in the stands that feels like taking this place for themselves. Oh, and make sure a few live long enough to crawl back to Wire. He sent them to die, he deserves to watch the blood stain his hands.”</p>
<p>Piper had visibly blanched and was now sitting very still in her seat. Pink-hair turned sharply and jogged back out to the press box, allowing Nightshade to turn her gaze on Olivia. She tried to hold her gaze but was conscious of her own deepening pallor and the roiling of her stomach.</p>
<p>“I told you before, princess, there are terrible things out here in the wilds. I almost wish you’d stayed in Diamond City.” Nightshade shot a glance at Piper that pinned her to the chair and probably came close to drawing blood. “But now that you’re here, I think I’ll be keeping you close. It’s safer that way.”</p>
<p>Grabbing her syringer once more, Nightshade began stalking toward the door. Piper’s eyes widened as she realized the woman was not stopping by her chair. “Hey, wait, what about -”</p>
<p>“Honestly, I’m disappointed you haven’t gotten out of those already, but it is nice to know I can keep you in one place for as long as I like.” Nightshade turned as she passed from the lounge and into the press box, winking at Olivia as she did. “Besides, I never heard our safe word. Did you, pet?”</p>
<p>Piper ground her teeth but, despite Nightshade’s very pointed stare, did not apologize. This seemed to make Nightshade even happier and she left the room with a spring in her step. It seemed getting to tie someone to a chair really did make her day that much better.</p>
<p>“Okay, Blue -”</p>
<p>“Why didn’t you just apologize?!”</p>
<p>“Me?!” Piper tried to talk with her hands but only succeeded in rattling her handcuffs. “Gee, why wouldn’t I apologize to the raider who broke my foot and tied me to a chair?”</p>
<p>“Well, she didn’t leave me with the key, so I hope you’re comfortable,” Olivia said, nodding toward her hands.</p>
<p>The fingerless gloves still showed healthy skin poking through but that did not stop Olivia from worrying that, in a fit of frustration, Piper would pull the things so tight she lost circulation. Piper, of course, blew a raspberry. “You worry too much. Watch, I’ll be out of these before you can count to three.”</p>
<p>“So this does happen to you a lot?” She waited for Piper to correct her but got only a pleading look of annoyance in response. “Fine. One. Two -”</p>
<p>“Count slower! Just… man, this is not as easy as I thought.”</p>
<p>Olivia rolled her eyes. “Hang on, maybe she’s got bolt cutters around here somewhere. Or a saw.”</p>
<p>“Why would she have those?”</p>
<p>“You just met her, didn’t you?”</p>
<p>“Fair enough, Blue.” Piper jangled the chains again. “Ooh, what about a bobby pin?”</p>
<p>“A what?”</p>
<p>“You know, a bobby pin! Sometimes you stick ‘em in your hair, sometimes you stick ‘em in a lock and get into other people’s stuff.” Despite Olivia’s disbelief, Piper looked as confident as ever. “Come on, I’ve done this a thousand times. Get me a bobby pin and I’ll be out before -”</p>
<p>“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got one.” Pulling the thin bit of metal from her hair, she walked her way over to Piper’s side, knelt down, and placed it in her waiting hand.</p>
<p>Piper was grinning like an idiot and promptly made the pin disappear in her clenched fist. “You’re a miracle worker, aren’t you, pet?”</p>
<p>“No! Absolutely not!” Olivia backed away, hands raised in surrender and nearly tripped over the coffee table in her humiliated rush. “I don’t want to hear it!”</p>
<p>“You didn't complain when she said it.”</p>
<p>Face flushed from more than just anger, Olivia went to the corner of the room where the Nuka machine still glowed happily. The cool surface of the easy-access box wasn’t quite enough to drain the blood from her face and so she reached in to grab another Nuka Quantum. Nightshade had just shaken her down for five thousand caps and was about to put her in harm's way for reasons she still had not explained, so she owed her a cold drink. Or three.</p>
<p>Not that she would say as much to her face. Unless the drinks were alcoholic and already fermenting in her stomach and even then, drunk Olivia did not do well around attractive women. Or pushy women. Honestly, drunk Olivia was just not good around any women.</p>
<p>“Can we just forget about that?” she asked plaintively, again fighting with the cap on the bottle.</p>
<p>“The press never forgets!” Piper shouted happily. Olivia turned around in time to see her bounding to her feet, silver bracelets jingling from each wrist. “Now come on, it’s time we got the hell out of here.”</p>
<p>“Are you out of your mind? She knows where I live!”</p>
<p>“She tied me to a chair and it wasn’t even in the fun way. I’m not sticking around to see if she gets any more ideas.”</p>
<p>Piper was already making her way toward the divider and peering out into the press box, handcuffs still jingling from her wrists as though the sound would help her blend in better. “The fun way, huh? Is this how you get all your stories or something you do in your personal time?”</p>
<p>“Oh, har har. You’ve seen the Diamond City crowd, how many of them would you let within ten feet of you? Good old DC Security is the only one putting me in cuffs and let me tell ya, they do not know how to show a girl a good time.”</p>
<p>Olivia sidled up beside Piper, peering over her shoulder to see what was happening in the press box. She could see Triggermen scuttling back and forth with mountains of caps that they were shoving into safes and carrying into a large, secured back room. Even with so many of them hurrying toward the oncoming raiders, they were determined to keep at least a few of them back here where all the money was being kept.</p>
<p>“See? There’s way too many of them. Look, just sit here and wait for Nightshade to come back. She’ll let you go, I’ll come back in a few weeks, it’ll be fine. Promise.”</p>
<p>“Blue, I don’t know if you were hoping to be in that chair or what, but it wasn’t real fun from where I was standing. Even if she has a soft spot for you for whatever reason, she’s a raider, and a real nasty one at that. I don’t want you here when she gets in a bad mood and decides someone’s arms need ripping off.” Piper looked around the lounge for a moment, seeing the same lack of back doors that Olivia had observed before. They would need to make a run through the main office or make a hole in the wall if they wanted to get out. “Listen, I really appreciate you coming out here with me. Let me pay you back by getting you out of here alive, okay?”</p>
<p>“Oh, you need to do a lot more than that,” Olivia scoffed. “You got me here in the first place! Getting me out is, like, the bare minimum.”</p>
<p>“Fine, whatever, just follow me.”</p>
<p>Wanting to do no such thing, she found herself tagging along behind yet another woman with an iron will and a confident attitude. She refused to admit that, between the two, she would have preferred to follow Nightshade. Terrifying as she was, she was competent and composed enough to tie Piper to a chair even while things were blowing up around her. There was something to be said for a girl who knew what she wanted and exactly how to get it.</p>
<p>“How do you think we’re getting out of here?” she asked as Piper reached the far wall.</p>
<p>Olivia had spent her young life in the cheap seats, and so things like private boxes and VIP seating were complete mysteries to her. Nightshade had done a wonderful job gutting and cleaning the old press box, knocking down walls until it was hard to see where they had originally stood, cleaning up the intervening space, and reinforcing the side rooms, if the Triggermen hauling caps were any indication. This, of course, meant devoting equal attention to a lavish throne room where she could hold court and look down on all the little people.</p>
<p>Piper didn’t answer, stopping instead by the Nuka machine and looking it over while Olivia continued to drain the one in her hand. Even a prison break could not stop a fellow Nuka enthusiast. The rear wall looked like patched-up drywall over a wooden frame with bits of insulation spilling out in a few of the corners, broken in two places by boarded-up windows.</p>
<p>She found herself wandering over to one of these windows and looking out at the cityscape beyond. Piper had lied to her. Diamond City was barely visible from here. There must have been miles of open road and collapsing buildings that could have been filled with all manner of nasty things. Her hand came up to press against the window before she remembered the glass had certainly been blown out centuries ago and instead came to rest on the wooden frame. She had never really looked at the skyline before. Part of the reason for that had been that she lived on a second-floor apartment directly in the middle of it, so her view had been mostly of the supermarket behind the complex, but she had also been young. She had been young and busy and so certain that tomorrow would be there waiting for her and that she could appreciate the city skyline after she had made it wherever she was supposed to be going.</p>
<p>“What do you think she wants with the tv station?” she asked, finding a large transmission tower among the ruins.</p>
<p>“Who knows? Probably wants to have her own show,” Piper said with a grunt of effort. Olivia declined to turn around and become an accessory to whatever crime she was committing. “Diamond City Radio. Could use. Some. Competition. But. I don’t. Think. She’s -”</p>
<p>“Okay, what the hell are -”</p>
<p>She got that much out before the Nuka Cola machine, the beautiful, vibrant, humming symbol of the old world, came crashing down to the floor. Piper backed away in a hurry, grinning broadly at the horrible murder she had just committed. Olivia stared, horrified, at the lopsided machine. It had hit the floor so hard it had actually made a dent.</p>
<p>“Are you - that was full! Oh my God, she’s going to kill you. And me! She’s going to fucking kill both us!”</p>
<p>Unsatisfied with her current crime, Piper leapt gleefully on top of the machine and began jumping on the far end. “Not if this works!”</p>
<p>“What? If what works?!”</p>
<p>“This!”</p>
<p>Right on cue, the front of the machine tipped forward. Wood snapped as floorboards rotted away and Piper’s expression went from one of jubilation to one of clarity as she started going down with the ship. Like the Titanic, the Nuka machine raised its stern high in the air as it went under, sinking beneath the rotted wooden waves to rest forever in glory at the bottom of the sea.</p>
<p>Only, there was light at the bottom of this particular ocean. Piper yelped as she went down, smacking against the wall and disappearing from sight with her final words. “Shit shit shit!”</p>
<p>No one could have missed the colossal crash and groaning of the ancient building as Piper violated it so thoroughly. Triggermen from the press box came hurrying back, guns in hand, eyes wide as they saw Olivia standing by a newly-made hole in the floor.</p>
<p>Olivia looked from them to the ground, which was two stories down and now covered in spilled cola and a prone, complaining journalist. That was her plan? Knock the floor out from under them and just run for home?</p>
<p>“Come on, Blue!” Piper said as she struggled to her feet. “You waiting for an invitation?”</p>
<p>The Triggermen looked at her more in confusion than anger but enough guns pointed her way to convince her how this would end. Nightshade had said it herself. The raiders here were bored, and she did not want to be the center of their attention. “What the fuck - hey! Grab her!”</p>
<p>With one last look back and a brief but very sincere apology psychically delivered to Nightshade’s merciful, beautiful, brilliant brain, she jumped down the hole.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. An Early Christmas</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Piper and Olivia escape Easy City Downs and recover in Diamond City, only to be interrupted by another call to adventure</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Piper had barely gotten to her feet when Olivia hit the ground next to her, flopping over with all the grace of a sack of flour. She even made a little dust cloud.</p><p>“You okay, Blue?”</p><p>“This was a terrible plan,” Blue groaned as she struggled to her feet. “And I am in terrible pain.”</p><p>Her own legs were badly bruised and would surely hurt like hell tomorrow but she forced them to hold her up anyway. “You’ll be in a lot more pain if Nightshade catches us so what do you say we get out of here before that happens?”</p><p>She staggered over to where Olivia was curled up and helped her wobble to her feet. “Why? Why did you do this?”</p><p>“You can get handcuffed to a chair at home, if you’re so jealous. Do you really want to stay out here with the raiders?” She pointed up at the hole they had both dropped through and the Triggermen now swarming around it. “‘Cause they don’t seem to be in a talking mood anymore!”</p><p>Olivia managed to pull forward and Piper followed at a half-limp, half-run as gunfire began to ping off the metal girders. Olivia’s luck had allowed most of the press box to remain standing rather than caving the whole thing in around their heads and had also put them within dramatic diving distance of the outside world. So the two of them dove, Olivia scrambling and rolling her way through a hole in the battered wall that enclosed the track. Piper followed with a more graceful and comic book grade somersault, which unfortunately ended with her knocking into Olivia and her turtle-rolling onto her side before their great escape continued.</p><p>More bullets punched through the rotted wooden facade, blowing out small holes in the windworn Nuka Cola advertisements and setting off a string of terrified curses from Olivia as she scrambled away. Piper was loving it. She kept her laughter quiet for the benefit of her unhappy companion, but this was the kind of thing she lived for. She had her hat, she had her life, and she was being chased away at gunpoint, which meant she was on the right track.</p><p>“She’s gonna fucking kill me,” Olivia was saying as they managed to reach the first row of houses on the other side of the street.</p><p>Piper chuffed along on her still-sore ankle and did her best to talk her misguided friend down. “She isn’t gonna kill you. Hell, she seems to like you a lot more than she likes me. At worst she’ll kidnap you and set you up with cold Nukas and comfortable chairs for the rest of your life. Or until I bust you out.”</p><p>“You’re out of your mind,” was the only argument Olivia seemed prepared to field and, being one that Piper already agreed with, it had less weight than she might have wanted.</p><p>“It’s just another enemy of the free press,” she said happily. “I should start counting them, make badges or pins or something for all the really good ones.”</p><p>“What’s hers? A chair?”</p><p>“Oh, too many to choose from, Blue. A sentry bot with a lot of rope? I’ve been hit by weaker super mutants.” There were also many more options that were much more suggestive but she felt like keeping that to herself for the moment. She liked Olivia, but she wasn’t sure if they were quite that close just yet. Though if they weren’t before, what brought friends together faster than being abducted by an attractive woman? “What’s a night shade, anyway?”</p><p>“Nightshade. It’s a plant. Poisonous.” Olivia was already sounding out of breath as they made it past the second intersection and Piper began slowing herself to a jog as they neared the bridge back toward Diamond City. “From before the bombs, I guess.”</p><p>“Never heard of it. Interesting friend you’ve got there, Blue. You hardly ever meet well-read raiders.”</p><p>Olivia came to a stop near the river, resting on a bit of stone fencing that had not completely eroded away. “Yeah. She’s something.”</p><p>Piper smirked but joined Olivia in silence, letting the poor girl catch her breath. She had to admit this was partially her fault for dragging a vault dweller out into the wild without even teaching her how to shoot. Worse, it turned out it was all for nothing. There was no secret mission into the loading bay to discover a weapon to destroy Diamond City, no grand heist where they came away with Nightshade’s caps in a bulging burlap sack. She had really just dragged this helpless, pre-war delivery girl into the deathclaw’s den on a whim.</p><p>She would figure out a sufficient apology later, and for now contented herself with an awkward pat on the girl’s heaving back. The girl didn’t respond and she took that to mean her apology was accepted.</p><p>“Sorry about that,” Olivia managed between breaths. “I didn’t know she’d be there.”</p><p>“No, no, I like meeting your friends. I honestly never thought I’d appreciate you keeping a radroach around my little sister, but it turns out he’s the most normal thing you’ve made friends with so far.”</p><p>“Including you!” Blue glared at her through a curtain of hair, a gesture much less intimidating than anything she had endured in the last ten minutes. “Let’s go to the city! Find a story about Triggermen and their racetrack! We did that. Everything was fine. And then we had to go inside. We had to go see the robots.”</p><p>“You can’t write a story unless you know the truth!” Piper stabbed the air with one finger dramatically. “They were planning something, I know it! We’ll have to find another way back in -”</p><p>“I swear to God, if you go back there alone, I’m taking Nat away from you.”</p><p>“Over my dead body!”</p><p>“It will be!” Olivia looked back the way they came and, mercifully, did not immediately panic and start running. Piper was too proud to look over her shoulder so if there had been a swarm of Triggermen following them, it would have been exceptionally awkward trying to ignore them. “You think she had a soft spot for me? What about you? What is she going to do to the woman who blew up her racetrack and kidnapped her pe - vault dweller.”</p><p>Piper let the freudian slip hang in the air a moment before she narrowed her eyes at Olivia. “Want to talk about it?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“You sure? I mean, I get it. She was…”</p><p>Olivia pushed herself off the fence, turning away to hide her face but not before Piper caught a substantial flush creeping in. “Don’t start with that. Let’s just get back home. You can torture me again there.”</p><p>“Hey, I’m not one to judge,” Piper said easily, grinning from ear to ear as she enjoyed the lack of attention. “You’ve been on ice for two hundred years, Blue. That’s a hell of a dry spell.”</p><p>“I miss my radroach. He wouldn’t do this to me.”</p><p>“And I miss being surrounded by crazy people with guns! It’s only a good thing when they’re dressed in baseball uniforms.” Piper navigated her way in front of Olivia and took point as they made their way across the bridge. “I don’t know what we’re going to do about the story. If we print it as is, it will just funnel more caps to her and her goons. As much as I love what she’s done with the place, I’d rather not be associated with its continued success.”</p><p>“I can help with that,” Olivia said cheerfully, following her between a pair of burned-out cars as they moved across the water. “Someone named Capper wanted to burn a hole in Diamond City’s door.”</p><p>“He’s still around?” Piper asked absently. “What a trooper. He’s been trying to take over Diamond City since before I moved in. The man’s persistent, I’ll give him that. What’s his plan this time? Dig under the wall again? Last time was hilarious.”</p><p>Instead of an answer, Piper got a distinct groan of annoyance. “So there isn’t a story here?”</p><p>“I didn’t say that, it’s just a comedy rather than a tragedy.”</p><p>“Great. He wanted to buy a sentry bot, an old military model built for sieges. Thought it would burn through the door.” Olivia opened her mouth to continue but cut herself off short, leaving Piper to wonder what else the girl had to say.</p><p>Well, even when she was being baited, Piper was not a quiet woman, and she refused to let anyone tell her that was a bad thing. Not even human sentry bots with tattoos and tight pants. “How the mighty have fallen. Last time, he wanted to train mole rats to burrow beneath the city and swarm out amongst the unsuspecting people. There were thousands of them. Some had little bombs on them, others had metal claws attached to their feet so they could dig faster. You wouldn’t believe the noise when the raiders let them out of the cages and they just turned around to kill the ones that had caged them. I wish I had been there to see it planned, with Capper standing in front of a projector and little mole rats with army hats devising a plan of attack.”</p><p>The memory itself was, in many ways, horrifying, but it was tinted an unmistakable rose by the fact that the raiders planning it had done this to themselves. Olivia was silent for a long moment, saying nothing until they reached the midpoint of the bridge. Probably contemplating jumping off and abandoning this ridiculous world of theirs.</p><p>“I can’t believe that.”</p><p>“Neither could we. Honestly, it was kind of horrible. God, the smell. I can still taste it when I think about it. Blech. Don’t mention it to anyone in Diamond City. They’ll either tell you to piss off or claim not to remember it. It was sort of a collective decision to never talk about it again.”</p><p>Piper hopped over a bit of exposed rebar without thinking, then waited on the other side for Olivia to get up the courage to make the three-foot jump to safety. Pre-war life must have been such a breeze. “No, I mean I honestly can’t believe it. I don’t believe that really happened.”</p><p>Suitable of a woman of her station, Piper stood on the other side of the gap and frowned in silence until Olivia finally made the jump. “The press doesn’t lie, Blue, nor does it forget. It’s a journalist’s job to report the truth, no matter how horrible! The people have a right to know.”</p><p>“Then Capper has gotten less creative and I honestly don’t know if I’m happy about that.”</p><p>“Happy. Trust me, I don’t know what’s further down the crazy road after mole rat corner but it ain’t good.”</p><p>At least Olivia didn’t argue about that. “You can thank Nightshade for the tip. I just overheard some rumors but she already knew who was involved.”</p><p>“You’ll forgive me if I don’t credit the raider boss when I print the article.” If Nightshade ever did get her hands on Piper again, she wanted her to be the least amount of pissed off possible. Happy was probably off the table, so that was what she was shooting for. Maybe if she printed something agreeable. But what was agreeable to Nightshade? A few ideas did occur. <i>A Captive Audience: Ten Knots to Keep Guests Entertained</i> and <i>Talking About Death: Raider Queen sends Local Journalist to find out What Happens in the Afterlife</i> both sounded like things she might enjoy.</p><p>“It’s your funeral. Like I said, I’ll take care of Nat, keep her on the straight and narrow.”</p><p>“Good luck with that! I’ve been trying for years. She’s -”</p><p>Something big moved in the ruins across the street, and animal instinct cut off Piper’s commentary and made her seize Olivia’s collar, dragging the both of them down behind a car. Olivia made a small yelp but managed to keep herself quiet as Piper pulled her to the side of the road.</p><p>Together, they stared out through the holes in the stone guardrail and watched the shadows. She had almost forgotten about the Wasteland’s more terrifying dangers, so preoccupied was she with the latest entry on her long list of enemies. Like medieval knights, Commonwealth citizens knew how to spot a dragon.</p><p>Olivia was not a Commonwealth citizen, as Piper had lately been forgetting. “What is it?” she whispered. “Is she over there?”</p><p>“Thought I saw something,” Piper murmured, eyes flicking between shadows. They could be quiet when they wanted to be, all but turning invisible in broad daylight. Some said they were like old world chameleons and could take on the colors of the world around them. She wasn’t sure if she believed that, but she also wasn’t willing to take that chance.</p><p>“Something angry?”</p><p>Piper had to nod. “Very. Know what a deathclaw is, Blue?”</p><p>She looked to the prone woman beside her and saw real fear rising in her eyes. Hopefully, Olivia could not see the same in Piper’s. “Just the name.”</p><p>“Let’s keep it that way.” Piper again peered out into the ruins, seeing another shadow move between buildings further to the north and away from them. “Shouldn’t be any this close to Diamond City. That’s strange.”</p><p>“Are you starting to miss that chair? I’m starting to miss the chair. And the Nukas.”</p><p>“Feels about the same to me, Blue.” Admitting Nightshade was preferable to a giant murderous lizard was not exactly a declaration of love but she refused to give the absent raider the slightest hint of consent. Not until she and Olivia were both good and drunk.</p><p>“What do we do?”</p><p>Piper didn’t say anything for almost a minute, watching the shadows until her heart stopped beating three times a second. “We get back to the city. Quietly.”</p><p>“Right behind you.”</p><p>The two scurried across the remaining bridge and into the streets Piper had once claimed were perfectly safe for two girls walking alone. Somewhere in the distance, hopefully drawing the deathclaw further away, was the sound of gunfire and the thump of explosions. There were no tracks of the thing going up and down the streets, so she had to assume it was sticking to the coast, even if she had no idea why it was here in the first place.</p><p>Another day, another story, another attempt at silencing the free press, but whether it was by bullet, bite, or bondage, no threat would keep her from the truth.</p><p> </p><p><i>The Secret of Easy City Downs</i> ended up selling fewer copies than Piper hoped, and so Olivia’s race winnings slowly began trickling into Piper’s waiting palms. This was not because Piper was looking for handouts but more because Nat needed new clothes and her little sister’s wellbeing was the only way Olivia could pry her pockets open wide enough for her to dump her caps in. She was as bad at taking charity as Olivia was at taking compliments.</p><p>For her own part, Olivia spent a good chunk of her time looking for extra blankets to drape over her windows to keep the cold of winter at bay. Insulation was at a premium even in the upper stands and, unlike the real aristocrats of the city, she didn’t have an old, interior room to live in, with a functioning old world heating system and several feet of concrete between them and the outside world. No, Olivia, despite being the one responsible for said heat, was not privy to such things. Her own home, a spacious construction of wood and steel, was only as warm as she made it.</p><p>She refused to admit it but, like a child hiding under her blankets at night, she was also tacking up her makeshift curtains to keep Nightshade from finding her. A few thin sheets of cloth would do nothing to stop the raider queen but she did feel better when she wasn’t staring at the open windows in the middle of the night, waiting for someone to come creeping through.</p><p>The week before Christmas, according to Nora’s Pip-Boy, was a spectacularly cold week. Big Green now refused to leave the boiler room and spent most of the time sleeping somewhere in the corners. It was probably for the best. She lived in fear of the day someone found him and gave him the business end of a rolled-up newspaper. Another life claimed by the Publick. What would Piper think?</p><p>“What do you think?” Olivia waited expectantly as Nat examined her boots. They were warmer than her old ones but were also a bit on the large side, and considering how often the girl was on her feet during the day, that might be a dealbreaker.</p><p>Nat stuck her feet out obligingly, wiggling them back and forth. “They’re better than the old ones.”</p><p>“You’re welcome,” Olivia said flatly.</p><p>Nat giggled. “What? Piper says I shouldn’t settle when it comes to clothes, careers, or boys.”</p><p>That was a fair list and Olivia conceded the point. “Well, if they’re too loose, let me know. Maybe we can get you some thick socks. I’ll keep an eye out when I’m at the store. Unless they kick me out. I think they’re getting tired of me buying all their blankets.”</p><p>Nat hopped off the chair she had been sitting on and began clomping around the living room while Olivia watched from the couch. Piper was upstairs trying to peck out another article and had been for the last two hours. Judging by the silence, it was not going well. Publick Occurrences was meant to be noisy.</p><p>“So what really happened?” Nat asked as she stomped back and forth.</p><p>Olivia made sure Nat was looking before she dramatically rolled her eyes. “You’ve read the article. Your sister and I infiltrated the track, made a few cunningly placed bets, eavesdropped in the right places, and that was that. Mission failed for the raiders.”</p><p>“Piper came back with handcuffs.”</p><p>Why she had not removed the things during their long walk back to Diamond City might have been chalked up to the presence of a deathclaw and the effects of a giant, predatory lizard on the already shaken mind. Why she had been nervously playing with them until she accidentally locked them together like manacles could not be so easily dismissed.</p><p>Olivia was not as good a liar as Piper. “That’s the best way to get information. Make them think they’re in control.”</p><p>She could all but feel Nightshade looming over her shoulder when she said that. The woman had a way of preying on the mind.</p><p>Nat made a face that was not entirely convinced but let it drop for the moment. “I still can’t believe you really got through all that. It was all true? The exploding robots, the raider gangs working together, the way you escaped?”</p><p>“Unfortunately, yes.” Her knee and ankle still hurt from her flour sack landing. “Even the escape.”</p><p>“That’s so cool!”</p><p>Olivia flopped back against the couch and looked up toward the stairs. Still no sound from Piper. “You must have been listening to a different story. It was all broken Nuka bottles and angry raiders from where I was sitting. I will admit the exploding robots were pretty cool.”</p><p>Nat threw her arms up as though that was the most obvious thing in the world. “See? Piper always says it’s dangerous doing what she does, but it always works out. And it’s so cool! You don’t have stories like that.”</p><p>“That’s why I like my job,” she countered flatly, determined to ignore the incredibly smug grin on the child’s face. “Trust me, there’s a lot to be said for a stable job with good pay that helps people keep warm in the winter.”</p><p>Convincing a young girl that the best jobs did not involve explosions was almost as hard as convincing her that her older sister was not an invincible superhero, but Olivia was determined to try. The last thing she wanted was for anything to happen to Nat and if any of these stories inspired her to go infiltrating raider gangs, she would never forgive herself. Not that Piper’s attitude about it helped much. She tried to keep the worst of it from Nat but that also meant she was starting to think it was all jumping out of exploding buildings and winning thousands of caps on defective robots.</p><p>“So why do you keep going out with her?”</p><p>The real answer, because Piper seemed to get tied up more often than a Scooby Doo character, seemed inappropriate. She also didn’t want to say she was protecting Piper, which was an outright lie despite their last adventure together. “She said she was taking me somewhere nice.”</p><p>“I said no such thing,” a very weary voice came from upstairs, heralding the arrival of a fatigued journalist.</p><p>“You said there wouldn’t be anything dangerous. It was an easy story. We walk in, walk out, get home before dinner. That’s what you said!” They were rehashing the same argument that had been fought before in deathclaw-fearing whispers as they bounded from house to house back to Diamond City, but Olivia knew she was right so that made it okay.</p><p>Piper glared, taking out her writer’s block on innocent Olivia. “You sure do complain a lot for someone who won a thousand caps on our little trip.”</p><p>“Most of it will be going to therapy and the rest is going there.” She pointed to Nat’s new boots.</p><p>Nat obligingly held one foot out in front of her. “These were not that expensive.”</p><p>“They’ll be the last ones you ever get if you keep that up,” Olivia shot back, lying through her teeth.</p><p>The lie must have been just as obvious to its intended victim because Nat just shrugged and resumed her march. Piper wandered her way over to the couch and joined Olivia with a defeated sigh. She knew better than to ask. Once Piper got her thoughts in order, which would take less time than Nat taking off her boots, she would hear the whole story from front to back with appendices provided.</p><p>She was still hoping for a quiet Christmas. A few months after her two-hundred-year nap and every few days she went from feeling like this future made sense to wondering if she would wake up in some monster’s stomach. Three days ago, she had been certain Nightshade would be finding a place for her to sleep and she would live out her days at the woman’s beck and call. Now she was sitting in the living room of her adoptive family idly wondering if she could find a christmas tree by tomorrow night.</p><p>“What did you used to do for Christmas, Blue?”</p><p>Olivia started, wondering how it was that Piper knew what she was thinking. “Put up lights, get people gifts, pick fights with family, things like that.”</p><p>Piper flopped her head back against the couch, hat still clinging stubbornly to her head as she eyed Olivia. “Charming. I was hoping for something a bit more wholesome.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Because everyone always complains that I never write anything nice and most days -”</p><p>“You actively try to write the worst things you can find.”</p><p>“- I write the truth,” Piper said pointedly, elbowing her playfully. “I don’t know, maybe I’m going soft. It’s your old lady influence on me! It’s making me boring and domestic.”</p><p>Nothing could have been further from the truth. No matter how strong Olivia’s old lady vibes were, Piper’s will was stronger. “You’ve spent the last two days complaining that Nora took Nick instead of you out looking for her son.”</p><p>“I’m the reporter!”</p><p>“He’s the detective.”</p><p>Piper glared at her, which typically meant Olivia had made a good point but she wasn’t ready to acknowledge it yet. “I find out the truth and tell the world. I got Nick back! I did my detective work and it got the detective back so I think that makes me a double detective.”</p><p>Unable to dispute the math, Olivia just rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why I’m arguing. If she’d taken you instead, you wouldn’t have dragged me out to Easy City Downs and that whole thing never would have happened.”</p><p>“Come on, it wasn’t all bad.” Piper leaned back, one arm over the back of the couch and gave her a look that Olivia did not entirely appreciate. “There was the story about the sentry bot, you winning a lot of money, I met your friend, it was a fun day.”</p><p>There was another Christmas tradition she could bring back. “Okay, okay, you asked me about old Christmas stuff? Here’s a fun one: Christmas dinner. Tomorrow night, I’ll bring over something to cook for dinner and whatever hard liquor I can find and we’ll have a nice meal where we all pretend to get along.”</p><p>“Oh? Do go on.”</p><p>“We can yell at each other, fight about politics, you’ll love it.”</p><p>Piper shifted enough to face Olivia and begin gleefully rubbing her hands together like a cartoon villain. “I do love a good fight about Mayor McFucker. Alright, Blue, teach me about this old world of yours.”</p><p>“Alright, let me set the mood. Do you have any relatives that hate you? Anyone who doesn’t approve of who you’re dating, what you’re doing with your life, that kind of thing? We’ll invite them over, pretend to be nice while trading subtle insults for an hour, and then, when we’re all good and drunk, stop being subtle and just go crazy.”</p><p>“I can do that!” Nat chimed in happily from her chair. “I can be angry about who Piper is dating.”</p><p>“She’s done it before,” Piper admitted. “But you’re out of luck, pipsqueak! I’m single and completely unwilling to mingle!”</p><p>“You’re not picking any fights,” Olivia said before Nat could come back with something clever. “You’ve got a more important job.”</p><p>“What’s that?”</p><p>“You get to open presents. We all get together and buy you the nicest things we can so you’ll be on our side when the yelling starts.”</p><p>Piper again folded herself back onto the couch, resting her head on her arm. “You seem very experienced with this, Blue.”</p><p>“Maybe I’ll share a story or two tomorrow.” Olivia matched her pose on the couch, grinning. “But not until we’ve had our hour of insults. It’s tradition, and I’m too old to change my ways now.”</p><p>The hour of insults, as she’d just coined it, had only come into being late in Olivia’s youth. During her first and only year of college, she had brought her first girlfriend home for the holidays. Her parents had reacted well and had honestly outdone themselves in making her feel at home. The extended family, however, was less pleased with her decision. In retrospect, it could have all been a massive misunderstanding, and they could have been less angry about the whole lesbian thing and more about her deplorable taste in women, but she had not taken the time to ask. The woman had been pushy, confident, and attractive.</p><p>Apparently nothing had changed, and she found herself smiling as she realized she had immediately gravitated toward the pushiest, most confident woman she could find even two hundred years in the future. She declined to use the plural, refusing to count Nightshade in with Piper on the grounds that Nightshade had been so pushy that she kidnapped her, so it didn’t count.</p><p>Piper noticed her smile and looked curiously at her, leaning comfortably against the shared couch. It felt very surreal, like the comfort of family didn’t belong in a banged-up, riot-inducing trailer sitting on an old baseball field, but she was not about to complain. She just sat there, quietly, smiling at the unwilling-to-mingle woman sharing her space.</p><p>“So,” Nat interrupted. “Presents?”</p><p>Piper snorted and turned to give her a piece of her mind.</p><p>The peace was broken by the door squealing open, surprising Olivia and Piper alike. Cold air stole away the tenuous warmth provided by the old trailer walls as the peaceful evening was interrupted in favor of what Olivia could only assume was unpleasant business.</p><p>“Hey, Piper.” A belated knock on the door marked the last vestige of pre-war politeness that still lived in Nora’s mind. “Sorry. Just got back. Can we talk?”</p><p>Seeing Nora never got easier. She had seen her, albeit briefly, before the bombs dropped, living an idyllic existence that Olivia had hated her for. A successful soldier-turned-lawyer with a loving husband, healthy baby, and a house in the suburbs, it put her own empty, one room apartment to shame. She didn’t even have a dog. Her last act in those halcyon days had been to steal a bit of her jewelry and impersonate her for two minutes just to feel like someone special.</p><p>The bombs had taken all of that away. Now, standing in the open doorway, cold as the night air creeping in around her, Nora was the image of invincible vengeance. There was nothing there to envy, and Olivia knew it, but she still wished she could have turned into someone more competent when the world ended. She hadn’t even taken Piper up on shooting lessons. In many ways, she had started building Nora’s old life from scratch while Nora tried to recover the last surviving piece of it. Being jealous of that was ridiculous to the point of being cruel and, when Olivia was not staring at the coat and rifle and steely resolve in her eyes, she was happy with how things had turned out for her.</p><p>She pulled her own jacket a little tighter around her chest as Nora closed the door behind her, only then realizing how long they had been sitting there in silence. Piper was the one who spoke next. “That’s alright. Is Nick with you?”</p><p>“No. He went home. Are you good to travel?”</p><p>Nora always spoke in staccato but this was sharp even for her. Olivia looked back at Piper to see her eyes go wide. “Now?”</p><p>“Yes. We found him.”</p><p>“You - where?” It took neither a detective nor a double detective to work out who she was talking about. Piper had actually stood up in surprise and was now standing beside Olivia.</p><p>“Fort Hagen. He’s got a bunch of synths around him. I want you there with me when we find him, Piper.”</p><p>Piper shot a glance to Olivia who remained completely unhelpful in this conversation. “Why me?”</p><p>“Because you’re… you’ll help me. I need you there in case I… in case I lose it.”</p><p>Now Olivia’s eyes went wide. Piper was a force of nature when she wanted to be but stopping Nora in her tracks seemed like shouting at a tornado and hoping it went away.</p><p>Even Piper hesitated. “This guy kidnapped your kid, Nora. If you lose it on him, what makes you think I’ll hold you back?”</p><p>“You can talk to him, get information out of him. Make him tell me where my son is. He won’t be in the fort, I know that. You’ll need to make him talk.”</p><p>“That’s… a tall order. I mean, I’ll try, of course I’ll try, but -”</p><p>“Tonight?” Nat, sitting forgotten in her chair, grabbed Piper’s attention just as quickly as she had lost it.</p><p>Olivia suppressed a wince. She knew that tone. Piper looked vaguely ill. “I’m sorry, kiddo. I - do we have to go tonight?”</p><p>Nora, to her credit, looked just as miserable. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how long he’ll be there. It was a risk even coming back for help but I had to try.”</p><p>“God, have you - of course you haven’t slept.” Piper looked heartbroken as she turned back to her little sister. “I’ll be back soon, okay? We can have Christmas when I get home. Fort Hagen isn’t far. It’ll be a few days. You can stay with Nina! Arturo always cooks for Christmas. It’ll be better than anything I throw together.”</p><p>Nat did not look convinced. The little girl’s eyes fell from her sister to the floor and didn’t rise to see the pain on Piper’s face.</p><p>“Hey, don’t worry, monster.” Olivia pushed herself off the couch and moved over to Nat’s chair, kneeling next to her and smiling. “You know what this means, right? You’ve got presents that need opening. If Piper won’t be here on Christmas day, then you have to open them now. That’s the rule.”</p><p>She might not have been good for much, but at least Olivia could handle looking after a twelve-year-old. Nat looked up at her, the pain in her eyes fading just slightly and a little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “You got me presents?”</p><p>“Don’t tell your sister. I didn’t get her anything.” Olivia shot a playful glance at Piper. “We’ll find something for her while she’s gone, though, huh?”</p><p>Piper smiled half-heartedly but, given the circumstances, that was more than Olivia had any right to expect. “Don’t spend too much, rich girl. You can’t buy the press.”</p><p>Maybe not, but she could bribe its little sister. She turned back to Nat and winked. “More caps for us, then!”</p><p>Nat giggled, and in so doing dispersed the storm clouds gathering over the building. Piper breathed a sigh of relief and even Nora managed to look a little more at ease, which for her was a monumental achievement. The Survivor, as she was coming to be known after Piper’s recent interview, still had not looked in Olivia’s direction and was still waiting for Piper to follow her out the door.</p><p>And, at length, she turned to do just that. “Just give me a few minutes, okay? I’ll grab my coat and some food.”</p><p>Nora nodded but said nothing. The woman had probably ascended beyond the need for food, sustained solely by rage and the screams of her enemies. It reminded her of someone else.</p><p>“Oh!” Both Piper and Nat turned to her as she popped up from Nat’s side. “Don’t leave yet. I have to grab something.”</p><p>“What are you talking about?” Piper asked, a smile growing on her face to match the one on Olivia’s.</p><p>Nora was not smiling. “This is important.”</p><p>“It won’t take long. I’ll be back in a few minutes, promise!”</p><p>She shot out the door, ignoring Nora, and hurried across town back to her place in the upper stands. Her brisk pace was made quicker by her forgetting her coat on the way out and she nearly bowled over several security officers as she ran through the streets. It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for once she got home. Nat was not the only person who was getting presents this Christmas.</p><p>Back to Publick Occurrences she ran, passing those same guards who greeted her with mock annoyance at her continued absence from the Dugout Inn and the customary gathering of public servants there after hours. She wasn’t sure why Piper had so much trouble with them. Most of them seemed alright to her.</p><p>Nora was standing by the door and went so far as to awkwardly twitch toward the knob to hold it open but stop at the last second and walk away. It was progress, at least. She returned to find Piper standing in front of a still-upset Nat, whatever explanation she was offering going over poorly. Her arrival at least turned the attention away from Piper, so that was something.</p><p>“Before you go,” she said, panting and holding up something wrapped in old issues of the Publick.</p><p>“Making me rip up my own work to get my present?” Piper asked in horror. “You got a sick mind, Blue.”</p><p>“It’s a metaphor.” When Piper gave her a flat look, wordlessly calling her bluff, Olivia just pointed at the present. “Just open it.”</p><p>It wasn’t a big present. About a foot in height and less in width, it was just about the right size for someone to stash quickly in their coat if, for example, the queen of the raiders was about to enter the room and tie your best friend to a chair. Piper ripped through the paper with more zeal than she expected, exposing the embossed cover and title of the book.</p><p>“<i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i>?” Piper turned the book over, a massive grin spreading across her face. “Blue! This is amazing! Where did you get this?”</p><p>“Uh, funny story, I grabbed that off Nightshade’s shelf before she came back with you.”</p><p>“Oh my God. I’d say she owes me after everything that happened at the track. Don’t start! I know I blew up a few old robots, but still, it’s the emotional damage.”</p><p>Olivia smirked. “Is that what you call it?”</p><p>“Call it whatever you want but I was in that chair, not you. One more thing we can talk about over dinner, I guess.” Piper gave her a knowing look that turned instantly into a massive grin. “Blue, this is incredible. Thank you.”</p><p>“It’s nothing, really. Merry Christmas.”</p><p>Piper threw her arms around Olivia before she knew what was happening. Not that she would have done anything to stop her, but it did surprise her. “Merry Christmas, Blue. This is amazing. Thank you. For this and for Nat.”</p><p>“You can’t thank me for her,” Olivia protested into Piper’s shoulder. “I have nothing to do with her. Any chaos she causes is her own fault.”</p><p>“You know what I mean.” Piper gave her one last squeeze and let her go, keeping one hand on her shoulder. “I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to read this, but I’ll get there. I’ve read a little about Sherlock Holmes and I’ve always wanted more.”</p><p>Of course she had. “More inspiration for you, double detective Wright. Now, go save the world. Nat and I have our own important business to be about.”</p><p>Piper’s eyes narrowed but she just laughed, taking a long look at the book before setting it gently on the counter. “Alright. I’ll be back in a few days. Don’t set the house on fire! And tell Arturo I’m sorry about this. I’ll make it up to him.”</p><p>With a swish of her trademark trench coat, Piper donned her cap and pushed her way out into the cold December night. Olivia watched the door close, regretting not being able to go with her. Not that she would need the help, of course, but she wished she could do all the things Nora could.</p><p>The pitter patter of little footsteps drew her attention to Nat as she came up beside her. She might not have been able to fight a deathclaw, but at least she could take care of the little things.</p><p>Nat looked up at her and frowned. “You didn’t get me a book, did you?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Holy Night</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nora shares an unexpected moment with Piper as they prepare to enter Fort Hagen and confront Kellogg. Left without their families, Olivia and Nat spend Christmas together.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Piper blew into her hands and stamped her feet against the cold as she waited for Nora to come back. Stupid fingerless gloves didn’t provide much heat for her poor moneymakers in this weather. She needed a thick pair of mittens like Nat. She wouldn’t be much good in a fight unless she started throwing snowballs, but that was what Nora was for.</p><p>Nora had left her to freeze inside an old Red Rocket filling station while she went to have a look around. There hadn’t been any explosions yet, which was a good sign, but that didn’t make sitting around and watching the empty streets any more fun. Remembering the deathclaw she had seen with Olivia only made the monotony worse. She was supposed to be alert, attentive, ready for anything. Instead, she was bored.</p><p>Wind cut through the broken windows to send her into a shivering fit. “God dammit, how long is this going to take? Probably just enjoying the weather after being frozen for two centuries. Come on, Piper, this is nothing, I had icicles dripping out my nose and complained less than this.”</p><p>At least she wasn’t about to fall asleep. They had spent most of Christmas Eve walking to the fort and boy were her feet sore. Maybe Olivia would get her some new boots like the ones she had gotten Nat.</p><p>The thought of opening presents with her little sister and her weird, time-travelling best friend soured as soon as it crossed her mind. Hopefully Olivia was doing something nice for Nat, like cooking her dinner and keeping her company. Maybe she would finally meet Arturo. Nat always loved his cooking, so maybe she could take the night off and just enjoy the holiday. Last Christmas, there had been another story outside Bunker Hill she had to look into, and Nat had talked about that dinner for weeks. The year before that, she had managed to stay home, but there hadn’t been any time to cook dinner or get presents, so the holiday had been celebrated over the next few days while she picked over the market in search of a suitable gift.</p><p>Come to think of it, work had kept her working on almost every holiday in the last three years. If Nat ever had a falling out with Nina, they would be in real trouble.</p><p>“You okay?”</p><p>Piper nearly jumped out of her skin. “Jeez, Nora, you scared the hell out of me!”</p><p>So much for keeping a lookout. Nora slipped through the broken door at the far end of the filling station and picked her way across the tiled floor, avoiding the broken ceramic and loose stones so as not to make a sound. She wasn’t tiptoeing or even looking at where she stepped. She was just silent.</p><p>“Sorry. Parking garage is clear. We can go in that way. Just have to pick a lock.” This was the part where Nora would normally start ghosting her way toward the building and noisy, clunky Piper would try her best to keep quiet and not bump into any trash cans. Instead, she stared at Piper. “You didn’t answer the question.”</p><p>Even when she was being comforting, the woman was not exactly soft. Piper smirked. “Yeah, doing fine. Just thinking about Nat.”</p><p>Nora was an especially broad and built woman, the kind one might describe as a brick wall, and so did not shift nervously anywhere but in her eyes. Those darted from the floor to the windows to Piper and a dozen points in between. “I should apologize for that. I know I’ve been… intense. I shouldn’t have dragged you away from family. Not tonight.”</p><p>“Intense, huh?” Piper repeated, leaning against the counter with a sigh. “That’s one way to put it. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I like a girl who knows what she wants, and you get bonus points for not being afraid to go get it, but damn if you don’t go hard.”</p><p>The brick wall cracked ever so slightly, a faint twitch of the lips becoming almost a smile. “My husband used to tell me that.”</p><p>Never one to pass up a story, Piper still considered letting this one slide. Fort Hagen was maybe a hundred feet from where they stood, and inside was the man who had murdered Nora’s husband and kidnapped her son. She had no idea how much longer he would be there. What she did know was there were dozens of Institute synths patrolling the grounds and that every second they stayed here increased their chances of being found out.</p><p>She was also conscious of her recent track record when it came to this kind of adventure and had no desire to end up tied to more furniture. Not when a Gen-1 synth was holding the rope, anyway.</p><p>“That was what he told me when I came out of the army,” Nora continued, taking a few steps and joining Piper by the counter, her eyes flicking toward the open windows and out to the dark world beyond. “Same thing when I went into law school. I never stopped. It was just one thing after the next; go, go, go. That’s actually why we had Shaun. I wanted to slow down. I wanted to be a family. Having a son to take care of just made it easier for me. There’s always something to do with kids, you know?”</p><p>Piper smiled. “Yeah. I still feel that way with Nat. She’s always up to something, that one.”</p><p>“Takes after you, I see.” Even if the world was lit by more than starlight, she doubted Nora’s face would have been readable. She liked to think she saw a bit of a teasing look, but that could have just been a bit of moonlight gone awry. “How long have you been looking after her, if you don’t mind me asking?”</p><p>“Oh, what’s it been, ten years? I think? She couldn’t have been more than three when dad died.”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Nora said, voice a low rumble. “Seems like you’ve done a good job with her.”</p><p>“She does most of it herself, these days,” she said, chuckling quietly. “Probably for the best. She was - I’m sorry, I’m talking about raising her and, well -”</p><p>“It’s alright, Piper. Actually, I… if it’s alright, I think I’d like to hear about it.”</p><p>The heart of a seasoned journalist should have been harder to break. “Yeah. Of course. Okay, where to start? When we were out in the sticks, after dad died, we got by on the kindness of others. I begged, did odd jobs collecting scrap and the like. Learned a bit about working with my hands trying to fix the town’s generator and water pump, which probably helped when I decided to scrap together a working printing press. I spent a few years doing that before finally getting enough money to pay our way to Diamond City. I was so worried about Nat getting sick or a mirelurk getting into the house one night, I didn’t think about what would happen when we finally did move. We’re lucky the caravan was on the level and not some slavers out of Nuka World.”</p><p>Nora was nodding slowly in the dim light, still staring out the front windows. “That’s a hard decision to make. What happened when you got to the city?”</p><p>“The Great Green Jewel? It wasn’t exactly a cut gemstone, back then. It was fresh out of the ground. That’s how it worked back in your time, right? You took rocks and then - okay.” She would have gone off on that line of questioning for much longer than was appropriate so she appreciated Nora’s patiently corrective nod. “The front door was actually stuck open. Nobody knew about that. Heard about that particular coverup before I even had a home to store a printing press, let alone the time and money to build one. Finding paper was a struggle. The market for odd jobs in Diamond City isn’t what you might think. Famous place like that, most people have a niche. So, for a while, sis and I lived on the streets, made shelter where we could find it. It was hard. I got desperate when things started getting colder. Started working with the water treatment plant, pulling things out of the filters underwater. Should have drowned more than once. Still can’t stand swimming. But when I’d scraped together the caps and found an apartment for rent, I decided to try starting up the paper. I’m not exaggerating when I’m saying it was either that or start entertaining the influential city folks, if you catch my drift.”</p><p>“You would have strangled someone your first day.”</p><p>Piper’s mouth hung open in shock. “Wow.”</p><p>Blue and grey in the starlight, Nora’s grin caught Piper off guard. “Tell me I’m wrong.”</p><p>“I didn’t say that. I just didn’t expect that from you.” Nora shrugged and gestured for her to continue. “So I remembered that story about the front door. Went to the Dugout, stirred up a few rumors, made a few inappropriate citations to spice things up, and bam! Instant success. Piper Wright went from living in the gutter to harassing the mayor in the span of a month. Don’t know if sis remembers that. Kind of hope she doesn’t, honestly. They weren’t good times.”</p><p>She would have given anything for a lantern in that moment. Nora tilted her head a bit and looked down at Piper with what she hoped was softness and respect but could easily have been disappointment. “She’s lucky to have you.”</p><p>Her sigh of relief was almost audible. “I don’t know about that. Lately, I worry she thinks so, too. She’s been doing all kinds of things that will get her into trouble. Last month she got in trouble because she was asking questions about a possible agreement between local caravans and a group of upper city snobs hoping to get first dibs on their stuff. I say first dibs but the truth was they thought stocking up on cram and snack cakes might help if super mutants broke through the door. Not the brightest bulbs in the stands.”</p><p>That had not been a pleasant mess to clean up, largely because once Piper saw it, she decided the best thing to do would be to make it bigger. That was what she did, after all. She found things that had gone wrong and she banged pots and pans together until someone came and made them right. It was an odd life, when she thought about it, and a noisy one. Probably wouldn’t be long before she got Olivia kicked out of her house in the stands.</p><p>“But she was right?” Nora asked after a moment.</p><p>“She was, but that’s not the point. The point is that she went snooping and could have gotten caught.” If Piper was an expert on anything, it was that subject in particular.</p><p>“You’re worried she’s becoming you.”</p><p>It wasn’t a question. “Yeah. One is enough.”</p><p>Nora was quiet for a beat which Piper took for polite agreement. “So what are you doing out here?”</p><p>“Keeping away from her. I figure, maybe if I make myself scarce, she’ll calm down, stop chasing after corruption and Institute spies like her big sister.”</p><p>It took another pause for Piper to realize where they were and when she had decided was appropriate to empty out her emotional baggage. This was not the time, not the place, and it might not even be the person. She still wasn’t sure about Nora, but if anyone knew the value of family, it would be her. Her and Olivia. Olivia would at least have gotten drunk with her before talking about it. That was the person she had wanted to talk about this with, it just hadn’t come up. Other things, like raiders and handcuffs, were higher on the list of things she wanted to pick Blue’s brain about.</p><p>Silent as a shadow, Nora moved from the counter and took a few steps toward the door. “Patrol just came around. We should go now.”</p><p>So that was it. Piper sighed and did her best to get herself into Institute fighting mode. They were about to go up against synths with very quick reactions and very accurate laser rifles. There wasn’t a lot of room for error. She filed the exchange away as just another oddity in her relationship with the pre-war widow.</p><p>She had just gotten up to the door behind Nora when she heard that rumbling voice again. “You shouldn’t push her away.” Nora turned back, the pain on her face obvious even in the dim light. “You don’t know how much time you get with family. I know that, now.”</p><p>Without another word, Nora slipped out into the starlit street, making her way toward the parking garage and the man that had taken her family away. Piper followed, gritting her teeth as she tried again to clear her head. There were other stories to think about now.</p><p> </p><p>Christmas Eve found Olivia in a strange and altogether unhealthy mood. Her apartment overlooked the marketplace, all strung up with multicolored lights that warmed her heart on the cold night, but the feeling faded as she pulled the curtains closed. It had the effect of emptying her out completely, adrift in a time unfamiliar to her and without any of her normal Christmas comforts. There were no movies to watch in bed, no cup of cocoa with a bit of peppermint sprinkled in, not even a pile of presents sitting under her tree. At least she had been able to find that. The tiny, plastic tree had only a dozen working lights, but right now it was the only thing making her feel human.</p><p>She hadn’t realized how much she missed her old life. It was the little things that stood out tonight, like the pointless Christmas cards that just got thrown away and the over-branded holiday candies that really weren’t worth the caps. Caps. Halfway between worlds, it was only fitting that she forgot how to pay for a box of gingerbread cookies. Just one more thing that, in the moment, had not seemed like a part of her world at all.</p><p>It made her feel lost, untethered, and very much alone.</p><p>So it was that she threw open her curtains, put on all her clothes to ward against the cold, and laid down on her couch to stare out the open window. It was a beautiful night. The starlight mixed with the ambient glow of the marketplace and the small but wonderful light shining from her tree.</p><p>She had hoped to spend tonight drunk at Publick Occurrences, ribbing Piper about their recent adventure. She had wanted to watch Nat open presents and spend the rest of the night regretting her choice in gift. Piper would give her hell for it but, too bad, that was what Christmas was all about.</p><p>It took two knocks at the door to rouse her from her reverie, having nearly dozed off in the freezing cold.</p><p>She nearly ignored it even after the second knock, but the soft voice at the door surprised her more than enough to get her on her feet. “Hello? Liv?”</p><p>“Nat?” Olivia could not have gotten to the door more quickly if her house was on fire. “What are you doing out this late?”</p><p>She opened the door and found the girl standing almost in the dark. The market lights were bright and the stadium lights were still on, but she wasn’t rich enough to have a porch light. “I wanted to come see you. I didn’t get to open my presents yet.”</p><p>All those feelings of loss and helplessness faded in the wake of the little girl’s mischievous grin. “Oh, you’re just here for a handout, are you?”</p><p>“You promised.”</p><p>Even if she hadn’t, she would have gone out into the market and spent whatever caps she had left just to see the girl smile. If Piper ever figured out how much pull Nat had with her, she was screwed. “Alright, come on in. Freeze to death inside with me.”</p><p>She closed the door behind them and made for the makeshift curtains, no longer needing the comforting glow of the world outside. Nat immediately went to the tree and pulled out another shoddily-wrapped package. “Is this one mine?”</p><p>“Depends. Did you get me anything or are you just here to rob me?”</p><p>“Of course I got you something!”</p><p>Olivia nearly passed out on the spot. “You did?”</p><p>“It’s Christmas, dummy!”</p><p>Unwilling to abandon all of her dignity, Olivia crossed the room in a sufficiently unimpressed manner. “Your sister didn’t get me anything. Maybe I should have given you her gift.”</p><p>“She’s always busy,” Nat said, letting the package fall a bit toward the floor. “Last year she was at Bunker Hill for a story and I had to stay with Nina. It’s a lot of work, keeping the paper running. She’s the only one in the city who really cares.”</p><p>Olivia sat down on the couch and watched Nat try to pick up all three of her gifts at once and haul them over to the table. None of them were very big, but one definitely would do poorly with after four feet of freefall. Luckily, all three made it to the couch before one of them came off the pile and plopped safely into her waiting lap.</p><p>“Was she always like this? Going out with no sleep to chase a story?” And dragging unwitting vault dwellers into raider camps?</p><p>Nat examined her two remaining gifts, settling the larger of the two into her own lap. “Yeah. One time she went without sleep for three days waiting for a slaver to leave his hideout. She had to watch a deathclaw go by right outside! And then she had to follow him, no food or water, for another day to where he was keeping the slaves. And then, after all that, she had to get them all out without him blowing up their collars!”</p><p>The more she learned about the Wasteland, the more she was grateful that Nightshade had been the one to pick her out of the dirt. That was what Tom had wanted to do with her before Nightshade killed him. She would have been sold off and spent the rest of her miserable life with a bomb around her neck doing whatever horrible work they could find for her.</p><p>Nightshade had actually said something about collars when they were at the racetrack, something about never putting one on another person. Hell, if she didn’t have to wear an exploding collar, yeah, she would behave herself just fine. RIght up until a crazy journalist punched a hole in the floor and then all bets were off.</p><p>If there was ever a next time, she would be sure to bring that up before Nightshade did something horrible to her.  “That’s incredible.”</p><p>“That’s what I want to do when I grow up.”</p><p>Suddenly the thought of exploding collars was not so bad compared to the thought of Nat hiding from deathclaws or being fed to a behemoth. “You do?”</p><p>Nat nodded emphatically. “I want to make a real difference just like she does.”</p><p>It was moments like this when she missed the rest of her family. Her older brother might have known what to say to talk a young girl out of a suicidal career decision. Of course, he hadn’t managed it with her older sister, but she also wasn’t sure he’d really tried. Maybe a lack of persuasive powers ran in the family, and that lack would prove no match for how good Piper made her line of work look. Even having seen some spectacular blunders firsthand, she still found herself getting starry-eyed around Piper when she heard some of her more ridiculous stories.</p><p>Of course, being such good friends, that starry-eyed amazement often translated to blithe dismissal and jokes about her reliability as a narrator, but that was just how they were.</p><p>“You should meet some of the people she saved,” Nat continued as she turned her present over in her hands. “Some of them settled here.”</p><p>“Oh? Anyone I know?”</p><p>“Professor Scara. She runs the lab. She was out exploring when some raiders found her. Piper saw it happen and rescued her before they could try and ransom her or kill her.”</p><p>She had heard the name, but much like in her past life, Olivia was not much for science and so had never gone to visit. She would, of course, swallow her distaste for numbers and formulas if it meant keeping Nat from following in her sister’s noisy and hazardous footsteps.</p><p>Unless Piper wanted her to. Nat obviously wanted to chase after her big sister but she was still a kid, so of course she looked up and saw an invincible, slave-freeing superhero. It didn’t feel right, letting her run off into that much danger just because Piper made it look good. It didn’t feel any better barging into Piper’s life and, two months later, deciding what was best for her family.</p><p>But she had seen how much Piper loved her sister. If there was anything she could do, anything at all, to keep her safe, she would do it.</p><p>“Can I open this yet?” Nat asked, hefting one of the presents.</p><p>Olivia pretended to be annoyed and hid her own smile. “You’re her sister, alright. You’re both so impatient. Fine, go ahead.”</p><p>It wasn’t much of a secret but that didn’t stop Nat from ogling it after she had ripped off the wrapping paper. A sleeping bag might not have been the classical gift for someone her age, but Olivia had seen the state of the girl’s room and she knew what she would have wanted in her place.</p><p>Nat unrolled it and immediately moved to the floor. “This is so much better than my old one.”</p><p>“It’s about time you got a new one,” she said, nudging it with her foot. “This one should be warmer, too, and a bit more comfortable. Just put it on top of the old one for a little extra padding and you’ll be sleeping like a queen.”</p><p>Reaching up to the couch to grab her two remaining presents, Nat folded herself into a cramped sitting position between the couch and the coffee table, determined to get the most out of it right away. The smaller of the two presents was next. It was a move Olivia respected, saving the biggest gift for last. It showed the kind of self control and determination that she had never possessed as a child and, arguably, had never learned as an adult.</p><p>“Thank you.” Nat smiled up at her as she began ripping into the smaller gift. “You should open yours next.”</p><p>She hadn’t noticed the little box Nat had slipped onto the table. It didn’t look very big, which was of no help in determining the contents because she had no idea what she even wanted. What she wanted was stability and a bit of peace and quiet, a chance at the normalcy that she had never experienced in pre-war life. How that could fit in a box was a mystery she was not equipped to solve.</p><p>Realizing she was staring, she missed Nat’s opening of her next present, only turning to see the girl’s beaming face as she examined the art supplies. They weren’t much, or at least she didn’t think so. She wasn’t much of an artist, but they were as good as she could find at Myrna’s on short notice. Some colored pencils and sheafs of paper, a box of sidewalk chalk, and an old pen were all she could cobble together.</p><p>To Nat, they might as well have been made of gold. “These are amazing! Where did you get them? Piper says they never have any when she goes out!”</p><p>“She’s not as lucky as me,” Olivia said, wishing Piper was here to see her gloat. It didn’t matter; once she got back, she would make sure to strut twice as arrogantly whenever she was around. And this wasn’t even the good gift.</p><p>Nat eagerly snatched the package off the table and shoved it into her lap. “That’s what Piper keeps saying. Here. She said you needed something to help you out in the new world. She said you’re helpless and that if raiders ever took you again, we’d never get you back.”</p><p>There was probably a great deal of truth to that, assuming one specific raider was the one doing the kidnapping. If Nightshade ever found her again, assuming she didn’t just break her legs right there, she would probably spend the rest of her life chained to something. The woman might have shown flashes of kindness, especially after learning Olivia was around before the bombs fell, but she was still a raider, and a good enough one to make the rest of them fall in line behind her.</p><p>She was still wondering how a raider spent Christmas when she opened the lid of the box and found a stack of papers inside. “What’s this?” She picked one up, examining the words stenciled at the top of the homemade comic book. “The Wasteland Survival Guide?”</p><p>“There’s more in the box,” Nat pointed out eagerly. “Piper said you had to learn how to survive in the Wasteland, so I made you this. You can read it after work and the next time you’re outside the Wall, you won’t be so helpless.”</p><p>“That’s her word, I take it?” she asked. Nat nodded happily. Helpless, huh? Well, one of them was oh-for-two when it came to dealing with raiders, so who was the real survivor? “This is amazing, Nat. You drew all this?”</p><p>“A lot of them are Piper’s stories. She picked some out she thought might help.”</p><p>The titles spoke for themselves, but she read them out anyway. “A Guide to Diamond City, that’s very helpful. The Scrapyard Home Decoration Guide, oh, she’s one to talk. Self Defense Secrets. Hey! Insect Repellent Special?!”</p><p>Nat giggled. “Just in case.”</p><p>“Why does no one appreciate Big Green the way I do? He’s a sweet, handsome bug that hasn’t killed anyone yet.” She emphasized the ‘yet’ largely because she knew how well children remembered what their elders told them and did not want to catch hell for this later. “He’s not the cleanest thing around, but neither is Piper! When was the last time you saw her shower? I don’t think she did when we came home from the track.”</p><p>Nat made appropriately disgusted noises and Olivia stacked the small comic books on the table. She would need to find a place to put them, lest Big Green find them first and eat them out of hunger and self preservation.</p><p>“Can I open the last one, now?”</p><p>She was particularly excited about this one. “Yes, but be careful. It took a long time to piece together.”</p><p>That got Nat’s attention. She showed a bit more care in unwrapping this one, weighing the larger box in her hands as she began to remove paper. The old Publick issues fell away to reveal what she had been working on in her spare time. After finding a set of tools for sale at Myrna’s along with the defunct item in question, she figured she would try and do something useful with her college job experience. Working in IT was pure misery most days but at least you got to take things apart when the professors broke them. From what she could tell, academic funding had remained largely the same post-war.</p><p>“What is this?” Nat asked as she slowly turned it over in her hands. “It looks - does this play holotapes? Where’s the screen?”</p><p>“I’ll show you.” She took the projector from Nat’s waiting arms, picked up one of the tapes she had managed to scrounge up just before Christmas, and turned it on.</p><p>The moment before it powered on was one of the most stressful of her life, but after a second, the box began to click, and the inside of her house was suddenly filled with light as the old video began to play out on the far wall. Nat’s eyes went wide. “Oh my God.”</p><p>“Merry Christmas, kiddo.”</p><p>Nat hopped back up on the sofa and sat beside her, thoroughly engrossed in the old murder mystery playing out on the wall. The speakers were tinny and didn’t work quite right and the projector had an annoying tendency to flicker at dramatic moments, but it played, and that was enough for the both of them.</p><p>When it was over, Nat was curled up next to her and Olivia was the happiest she had been since long, long before the bombs fell. She told herself this was something she did for Piper, that taking care of Nat was a kindness and a favor, but this was entirely for her.</p><p>“What’d you think?” she asked as Nat sat up.</p><p>Nat just shook her head. “This was amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much.”</p><p>“Just be careful plugging it in. I can do boilers, not generators. I don’t trust my hot plate most days.” She nodded toward the pile of comics on the table. “And you got me something pretty great. Always good having more food for Big Green. He’ll like the characters as he chews through them.”</p><p>Nat groaned and stood up, looking around at her things. Olivia didn’t join her. This was the part of the night she wasn’t looking forward to. Honestly, she’d probably end up reading the comics all at once and staying up until morning anyway, but she had really needed the company tonight. Getting drunk with Piper was supposed to end with her passed out on the couch of Publick Occurrences while Piper snored up a storm upstairs and she was a real stickler when it came to evening plans. Being alone with her thoughts on a night like this would not have been good for her.</p><p>“Are you going to need help carrying everything?” she asked as Nat looked around at her things.</p><p>The little girl looked toward the covered-up window and pretended to judge the night sky outside. “It’s pretty late. I was supposed to go stay with Nina but her family’s probably asleep by now.”</p><p>“Sorry. Didn’t mean to keep you this long. Did you get dinner at least? I have some steaks around here if you’re hungry. If you’re just going back home, you can stay here and eat as long as you want.”</p><p>Nat nodded slowly, looked up at her carefully. “Well, I’m pretty tired. And the sleeping bag is already here.”</p><p>She was obliged to glare despite her intense desire to smile. “I wouldn’t have gotten it for you if I knew you were just going to crash here.”</p><p>“But Piper’s always out of town! And I need somewhere to stay.”</p><p>“You’re worse than Big Green,” she lied, determined to at least pretend she wasn’t a complete pushover. “At least he finds his own food. Now I have to worry about feeding another mooch. But I guess it’s late, and it’s Christmas, so I’m feeling generous. Just don’t make a habit of it! I’ll start charging you rent.”</p><p>Nat ignored her, which was completely fair, and set her sleeping bag on the couch. She probably would have watched movies all night if Olivia hadn’t been terrified of burning the house down, but fell asleep soon enough after she left the room. It was entirely too tempting to read through every comic book now but she decided it might be better to space them out.</p><p>Instead, she put her head down and found it easier to fall asleep than it had been since arriving in Diamond City. Nightshade was still out there, still more than capable of ripping her way through the walls and taking her kneecaps as payment for running away. She should probably have been worried about the little girl now sleeping in the other room, which would be directly between the angry raider and Olivia if she decided to use the door, but she wasn’t. She wasn’t scared or miserable or wishing she was somewhere else.</p><p>She was just happy. She had a family again.</p><p> </p><p>Her fingers circled the smooth glass with slow deliberation, appreciating the perfect craftsmanship that went into such a small and fragile thing. Glassware these days had so many chips and sharp edges, courtesy of two centuries of carelessness. That rough handling was made worse by the fact that no one seemed to be lining up to make more. What was the point? All it took was one moment’s indiscretion and the perfect chaser would be reduced to a thousand pieces, good only for biting into unwary soles.</p><p>But it was these little things that she loved so much; good bourbon, found tucked away in the same dark corner that had safeguarded a fine set of chasers, ice cubes, probably the only ones being made in the Commonwealth any longer, and a place to enjoy the two in silence.</p><p>The bar held six people, including herself. She could watch the other five from her booth, where she had stretched out lazily along the bench and placed her back against the wall. Not as comfortable as her private room, but seeing as that now had a large hole in the floor, she had been forced to find other accommodations.</p><p>The private party had displaced the usual drunken crowd but, raiders being raiders, they had set up a new tavern in ten minutes at the center of the racetrack. On the subject of delicate tableware, she spared a thought for what would become of the mess hall and the stress now being laid on her poor cooking staff. Ceramics were a bit easier to dig up than glass and certainly easier to replace on short notice, so the inevitable complaints would at least have a ready answer. She hoped they were all good and drunk by now. They had earned a night of cutting loose.</p><p>Currently tending bar was a new addition to her little cohort who insisted on being called Busboy. It would have been less strange if he had been a ghoul, but no, somehow he had stumbled upon the term and thought his method of cleaning up messes matched those employed in ancient eateries across the world. An odd selection, but her own name was hardly contemporary. She was still waiting for someone to ask about it. A lack of innocent questions was the price she paid for infamy.</p><p>Taking drinks and chatting quietly was the Birmingham brothers, Odds and Ends. They had been a surprise addition but were welcome all the same, even if they treated all of this as some sort of grand game where death just meant clearing the board and starting over. Beside them stood the soft spoken Chaser, the thought bringing the hint of a smile to her lips as her fingers continued tracing the outline of the glass that shared her name. Leaning against the bar, the woman had more in common with the polished glass than might have been expected. Both were cold and hard to the casual touch, but get enough hard liquor in them and a careful touch could make them sing.</p><p>Not that she had ever heard that particular song, but she had learned to read people well enough over her years alone and she dearly loved these little footnotes.</p><p>Last, but most certainly not least, was the woman sharing her space, leaning against the edge of the booth she had taken for her own. Pink hair tossed to one side, Violet was either colorblind or enjoyed having an excuse to answer stupid questions with broken bones. She had never figured out which, and the temptation to ask would one day almost certainly prove overpowering. A girl could only hold it in so long.</p><p>And above it all was the queen, presiding over it all from her chosen throne. She lifted the bourbon to her lips and took a long drink, staring off in the direction of the Commonwealth’s greatest city and the frequent object of her idle thoughts. Few people occupied as much space in her mind as the lovely vault dweller. Even her well-published companion was running a respectable second, and that was even after she had broken so many of her most expensive toys, including a working Nuka Cola machine. If she ever got her hands on Piper Wright again, she wasn’t exactly sure what she would do, but she knew that at least one of them would enjoy it very much. Exactly how much depended on her mood, and what words Olivia chose to speak on her behalf. She had such a weak spot for that girl.</p><p>But there were others on her mind tonight. Two men, soon to be dead, were living out what she hoped were their final hours in her waking thoughts. One was almost certainly trudging toward her doorstep at this very moment, the other was hiding away behind a door she could finally force open. The thought of watching that man die was so sweet that she had to close her eyes to see it clearer. If only Olivia had stayed.</p><p>No matter. The princess had given her this chance, and no matter where the girl ran or hid or who spent her time with, she would still have given her the world on a silver platter if she asked.</p><p>Her eyes rose slowly toward the press box and the unsightly hole in the floor. She would give her the world, yes, but not before she worked out a bit of her frustrations on the pretty thing. It was a hard world out there, and a girl had to have her principles.</p><p>“Nightshade?” She opened her eyes lazily at her chosen name. Even her dear Violet didn’t know her real one, and that was the way she liked it. “Wire is here.”</p><p>Now she did smile, wide and wicked. “Show him in.”</p><p>The figures by the bar turned, still holding their drinks, to see the show. The unfortunate main character in this particular tragedy looked like he had tried to dress for the occasion. He had managed to find a pair of sharp pants and an almost military jacket, but the rest of him looked like the disheveled survivor of a shipwreck. Grime and filth all over, boots that looked waterlogged and deeply sad, and the expression of a man the world had beaten to death years ago all told the story of the man who called himself Wire, raider boss of the dread flotilla Libertalia.</p><p>She liked to think her own outfit did the same, but for a story that was yet to reach its climax. “Hello, James.”</p><p>The man stiffened but didn’t rise to the bait immediately. He wasn’t supposed to. It was just to remind him who was in charge. She could call him anything she pleased, but thinking up pet names was effort only spent on those she intended to keep around.</p><p>Wire looked at her, jaw set in helpless anger as she let him stew in her silence. “Did you bring me here to taunt me?”</p><p>“Oh, please, I could have done that over loudspeaker and saved you the trouble of the walk. I’m not a sadist. In fact, I don’t recall asking you to come here. But you may lay your problems at my feet all you wish, Lieutenant. I imagine you have practice blaming others for your own failings.”</p><p>His face contorted in rage but he knew better than to do anything stupid. He had a little self control left even after all these years. She would consider it a personal success if she got a rise out of him before she tossed his body from the stands. “You killed my men.”</p><p>“And women,” she pointed out coldly. “One in particular comes to mind on that point. I would apologize on that point, but I doubt you’d accept my condolences. I remember her crawling away while the rest of your people were making a mess of my minefield. She should have reached your cabin alive, if I’m any judge. Did she live long?”</p><p>Wire looked ready to reach over the bench and try to strangle her. He wouldn’t get far, but the anger in him was so intense she could feel it warming her skin. Someone was forgetting their place. Someone needed to be taught a lesson in respect. “You -”</p><p>“Answer me!” she snapped. “You sent her to die for whatever pathetic shreds of pride you still have left in that washed-up shell you call a body and she still crawled back to you. On her hands and knees and in her last moments of terror, she went to you and your miserable friends for help and you will tell me how long she suffered for that mistake.”</p><p>Like a trained dog, he was back on his heels, remembering his place in the room. “An hour. Two.”</p><p>Her own lip twitched involuntarily. A rare loss of control, but she hated the needless cruelty men like him employed.</p><p>From across the room, Chaser racked the slide of her pistol. Odds and Ends both chuckled and shifted in their seats while Busboy grabbed an empty bottle and began humming as he tossed it end over end in one hand. Violet did nothing.</p><p>She composed herself, adjusting the glass on the table as she leaned back and lazily crossed her ankles. “Now, let’s try this again. I knew I’d be looking at your unsightly face tonight but I most certainly did not ask for you to be here. So, what are you doing here?”</p><p>“If you knew I’d be coming, you know damn well why I’m here.”</p><p>“Yes.” She raised the glass to her lips, smirking beneath the rim. “But I want to hear you say it.”</p><p>The last spark of defiance began to burn out in the eyes of a once-great man. She had heard his story before, and she liked to think that he had potential. He had been in the right place at the wrong time, that was all. This scene, this melodrama unfolding in a decrepit bar was not supposed to happen to him.</p><p>“You win.” That was all he managed, and the last embers of that fire were stamped out beneath her heel.</p><p>She hadn’t even broken her stride to do it. “That’s all? I was expecting more theatre.”</p><p>“What else do you want, bitch?”</p><p>Violet snorted rudely and the brothers chortled. It was enough to put him back on his heels even when all she did was raise her eyebrows and set her glass down atop the table. “Lieutenant! Such language. Did you use that on the new recruits? A little on the nose, if you ask me, and I have some experience in tearing down a fragile ego. The Minutemen have such an interesting history, you know. It must be strange, having been around for the final chapter. In fact, you were more than just around for it, you helped write it. You can cling to whatever scraps of humanity you still have inside your head, hide them away when you pass beneath the bodies of traders you strung up and mutilated for sport, but it doesn’t change what you did, and that every man and woman that served beneath that flag is disgusted beyond words at what you’ve done.”</p><p>She saw his hands twitch for the knife she knew he had hidden in his belt. It would have made things interesting. Maybe he would get lucky, catch her and her people off balance long enough to stick her. Probably not. More likely, Violet would break his arm, and if she was too slow on the draw, her drink would end up shattering against his face. The loss of the glass would be the real tragedy.</p><p>In the end, feeling the weight of her stare, he did nothing, and she continued, pointing two fingers at his chest where James Wire kept a suitably dramatic secret. “How miserable it must feel to wear their colors beneath your clothes. Do your men know about that? The old, blue bandana you keep beneath your shirt? I’m surprised the lie of it hasn’t burned a hole in your chest.”</p><p>Finally working up a bit of dignity, he rose to the challenge.“You don’t know anything about honor, do you? About what it took to serve?”</p><p>“I’ve never pretended to be anything other than what I am, James, but even one as limited as you can see the corpses hung outside your windows and know that there are no such bodies here. We keep a quality establishment here.”</p><p>“Oh, now that’s where you’re wrong. I know all about where you came from, who you used to be.”</p><p>Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, sizing up the cocky grin as unfounded arrogance. It was hard to tell on someone so limited but she found it hard to believe this unkempt water rat had actually dug up something incriminating on her. “That would make you the only other person in this room besides myself that knows that story. What an accomplishment that would be. Go on, James, tell them what you’ve found. Have you learned one of my old raider names? I admit some of them weren’t very impressive.”</p><p>“No, I mean where you came from. Way back from before you were Nightshade or The Runner or Sparks or any of the other names you made up. I had a new recruit come in, someone who knew you from a long time ago.” Wire’s grin widened. She had to admit his face would look so much better glistening with shattered glass. “What do you think would happen if I told your old friends where you are now? I don’t care what it would cost me if I got to be there when they put a collar on your neck and dragged you off.”</p><p>Violet had the good sense to take a quiet step away. Chaser was still holding her pistol and Busboy his bottle, but Odds and Ends looked annoyingly interested. They wanted to see her lose control again, did they? That was fine. This was a teachable moment for them. “You think you can threaten me? In my own house?”</p><p>“No, but maybe your little vault dweller friend. Oh, I know about her, too. How you went soft when you found her on the Charles. I’ll bet your old friends would love to meet her, wouldn’t they?”</p><p>Her fingers, once trailing lines around the lip of the glass, stopped. Cold hate began to spread like ice inside her chest until her heart cracked every time it beat and frost filled her lungs. How? How had he found out about her?</p><p>“What makes you think I care about some vault dweller?”</p><p>“Oh, I heard about what happened at the brewery,” the dead man boasted as she began to ease herself slowly to her feet, standing before the taller man who lacked the sense to make himself small. “How you tried to get her out before your own people. The ones who lived weren’t too happy about that. And then she turns up again on your doorstep? Is she your plaything? Your pet? I wonder what they’ll do when they find her. She won’t last five -”</p><p>Wire’s throat closed suddenly and completely, crushed beneath her thumb as her arm lashed out to catch his neck. His eyes, so lazy and arrogant before, now bulged with terror as he began to beat against her arm. She barely felt the blows.</p><p>“I wish you hadn’t said that,” she whispered. “I really, really wish you hadn’t said that, James, because now I have to do something very unpleasant.”</p><p>Grabbing the knife she knew he had hidden in his belt, Wire brought it up to stab into her forearm. She caught his wrist with her other hand.</p><p>“I wanted you to join us. I wanted your miserable, washed-up, make-believe pirate colony to join with us and do something useful, but you had to go and do something stupid, didn’t you, James? You had to try and be the big man in charge like you always wanted to be.” She held his gaze as she twisted his wrist, wrenching it until the knife clattered to the floor. “You should have known your place. You should have listened to your little friend, told them all about where I was and how to find me, and then watched as I killed every last one of them. I wanted to be found, Wire. I wanted them to come here. And now you’ve gone and fucked that up, too.”</p><p>Whatever was left in Wire’s mind was busy trying to put air back in his lungs. She looked into his eyes, saw them going wild and terrified as he knew he was about to die, and took her hand from his throat. She kept hold of his other hand, preventing him from falling to the ground and leaving him gasping in her grip.</p><p>Her fingers curled around his chin, lifting his eyes to hers in his last moments. “I was going to let you live. I was going to let all of you live. But you just had to try and put on those big boy pants, even if you were always too scrawny to wear them. The sad truth is, James, that the world won’t even know you’re gone. Your greatest contribution to it will be sating whatever creature eats your rotting corpse. You were never meant to be important. Now, be a good boy and close those eyes for me.”</p><p>Wire’s throat closed for the last time in his miserable life, but he would stay alive just long enough to hear her words. He would know this was his fault, and he would take whatever misery that brought him to his grave.</p><p>She looked up to Violet and noted with pleasure that Odds and Ends were afraid. “Burn it all.”</p><p>Wire’s mouth moved without words but she had long since passed the point of caring to read his lips. She just held her hands in place and waited for the world to get a little less horrible. When the body finally slumped to the floor, Violet had already moved to the door, passing the orders to arm the mines one last time and put Libertalia out of its misery.</p><p>She turned her hand over in the dim light of the bar, examining the feeble scratch marks crisscrossing her forearm. When she thought to look for them, Odds and Ends had already left, presumably to go arm the northern mines and watch the fireworks. Hopefully they had learned something. She hated having to repeat herself.</p><p>Chaser, good girl that she was, shouldered her sniper rifle and began moving toward the door, giving her a respectful nod as she passed. She didn’t ask for much, just a little obedience, a little deference, and that no one threaten her friends. She only had one of those, anyway, so they should have been easy rules to follow.</p><p>“Boss.” Violet stood near the door, flinching under the gaze that snapped to her like a magnet. “If I-”</p><p>“Libertalia was always a lost cause.” She flexed her arm and looked down at Wire’s body one last time. “Throw this in the street. Let the feral dogs deal with their own.”</p><p>“Ma’am. With respect,” Violet continued carefully. “You said you wanted to be found. We should know who is coming for us.”</p><p>“For you, dear Violet? No one. Once that floating junk pile is at the bottom of the ocean, which it’s not getting any closer to while you’re standing here with me, our little corner of the Commonwealth is looking almost spotless.” She walked slowly toward Violet, noting with appreciation the way she still shied away in fear. “A few deathclaws wandering south, a super mutant gang squatting in a half-demolished building, and hardly a feral ghoul between here and Diamond City. They should start paying us for our work.”</p><p>Violet did not laugh at the joke, which was disappointing, and chose to press her point. “We deserve to know who it is we’re killing.”</p><p>Her eyebrows rose slowly at that. With the bar now empty, she began to walk a slow circle around Violet, looking her over as she did. “That’s an interesting notion. What you deserve. What do you deserve, Alex? What do I owe you for these months of loyal service? What have you rightly earned that I have ever denied you?”</p><p>Violet stiffened at the use of her real name but stopped herself from turning around in shock, which meant she missed the smile spreading over her boss’s face. She was not supposed to know that, but it was on a very long list of similar things and nowhere near the top. There was such power in names. “I - nothing, boss.”</p><p>“That’s better.” She reached out to finger the edge of Violet’s jacket, pinching it and tugging gently around her shoulders, adjusting it just enough for her to notice. It was the little things, the small exercises of control, that were the sweetest. “You don’t need to worry about them. You did well with Wire - better than I expected, and I have no problem saying I expect more from you than most. And your spies! So well chosen, so well placed. I’m very impressed.”</p><p>She stopped in front of Violet again, waiting for her eyes to rise from the floor. “Thank you.”</p><p>“You’re a sharp girl, Violet. Worry about what I put in front of you. I won’t throw you away like your last master did. He didn’t know what he was giving up at all, did he? I’m glad you were the one to kill him, and I’m so very glad you chose to stay with me.” Her smile widened as Violet began to relax, the tension in her shoulders falling away. “There we are. Worry about Libertalia tonight, and let me worry about what comes next.”</p><p>Violet nodded. “Of course. The next one. What did you want to do about him? Are we still going tonight?”</p><p>Ah, yes, tonight. She had promised herself two deaths. There would be far more than two, now, but it was like trading a Nuka Quantum for as much sewer water as she could drink.</p><p>She paused for a long moment before answering. Patient. She had to be patient. “Tomorrow. Let him hide in his hole for one more day.”</p><p>Once again, Violet nodded and finally pushed her way out of the room, leaving her alone in the empty bar. She made her way back to the chaser, pinching it between thumb and forefinger before carrying it to the bar. The bottle she had set aside was still right where she had left it; no one here would dare to so much as sniff it without her permission. She drained the glass and began pouring another before the ice melted any further.</p><p>In the distance, the revelry was interrupted by the sound of distant explosions and miniguns roaring to life. She spared a moment’s thought for the poor bastards about to be woken up by scything bullets and falling mortars. At least for some it would be painless. For others, well, at least they would not be alone. She had been ready to deal with anyone who came for her. If they knew about Olivia, if they thought they could get to her, she would need to change her tune. It was just as well; she loved being the center of attention.</p><p>As she finished another glass and began to fill another, she caught a glimpse of herself in the cracked mirror behind the bar. Her own gaze looked so cold, so lifeless as it stared back at her. Her latest chosen name suited her. The Wasteland was full of things with sharp teeth and insatiable appetites, but those that tried to consume her never stayed alive for long. What better way to stop an endless hunger than a poison disguised as a beautiful flower?</p><p>That was Nightshade; beautiful, uncaring, as merciless as a force of nature, and soon there would be no one left alive to try and pluck her from the earth. Where she grew, that place was hers. This was what she had tried for so long to be, and here she was at last. She was not running any longer. She was not the terrified girl who fixed up wires and welded metal plates together so the bigger raiders wouldn’t kill her. She was not the frightened shadow that moved beneath the steps of giants and hoped she would not be crushed. She was free. She was alive.</p><p>And she would kill anyone who tried to make her a slave again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. On the Road Again</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Piper drags Olivia to the Memory Den</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Just trust me, Blue, I promise you’ll like it.”</p><p>How many times had she heard that before? Olivia wasn’t sure what the exact number was, but it was very close to the number of mornings she’d woken up with a pounding headache and unshakable regret, which was the more important number anyway.</p><p>And who else but Piper Wright would be keeping that tradition alive? “I already relive my memories every night. I play all my regrets out on the ceiling like a movie. It helps me fall asleep.”</p><p>Piper snorted. “Yeah, you’ve been down in that boiler room way too long. Time for some fresh air.”</p><p>Plodding along ahead of the two bickering ladies was Nora, rifle held lazily across her chest. While she normally would have been avoiding the walking tank with an attitude problem, being outside Diamond City’s walls had abruptly changed her tune. Having to choose between a pre-war supersoldier and an irradiated tyrannosaur was not as difficult as one might have thought.</p><p>Said supersolider had remained quiet for most of their journey, as had the surrounding streets, and Piper did not do well with quiet. She gave Olivia a playful nudge and pointed up the road. “Look, it’s not that far. And Goodneighbor isn’t all bad! Especially not when you’ve got such excellent tour guides.”</p><p>Nora did not respond, leaving Piper to gesture feebly at her and slump into the awkward silence that followed. She bounced back quickly enough, smiling even before Olivia could properly respond to her blithe assurances. “I don’t know how you talked me into this.”</p><p>“Because you like our little adventures.”</p><p>“Our last little adventure ended with both of us getting kidnapped, falling out of a building, and hiding from a deathclaw. Which I should have thought about before I agreed to come along, so really this is my fault.” Olivia peered around miserably, suddenly terrified that she would find Nightshade creeping up behind them. “Why couldn’t we have gone somewhere on the other side of town, you know, away from the racetrack?”</p><p>“Come on, Blue, even this Nightshade person isn’t going anywhere near Goodneighbor. They take their autonomy very seriously. Sort of like pre-war America, right? You should be right at home.” Piper swayed over and put on a sincere, and therefore off putting, smile; she knew how persuasive those could be and she hated them for it. “Listen, I just wanted to do something nice for you after all the, you know, chair-handcuff-Nuka stuff that happened before.”</p><p>“That wasn’t even the bad part!”</p><p>They had spent New Year’s Eve reminiscing about the Easy City Downs incident, going over the whole thing in uncomfortable detail and forcing Olivia to admit she would have been willing to stay with Nightshade for as long as the raider demanded, leaving only when she was permitted off leash once more. It didn’t seem so bad there. She trusted Nightshade not to do anything terrible to her and honestly that put her above about half of Diamond City Security. Piper had also hammered home the point that Nightshade was very attractive and did seem to have a soft spot for her pet vault dweller. If there was one thing she resented Nightshade for, it was calling her that in front of Piper.</p><p>Her outburst might not have earned a glance from Nora but her face reddened as Piper gave her that same knowing look she had used the last time. “Like I said, if you want to go back and have your time in the hot seat, I won’t stop you; she seems to like you a lot more than she likes me anyway. Once you’re done reliving the golden days of your youth, you’ll be free to totter off to the tracks and spend time with your new girlfriend.”</p><p>If looks could kill, Piper would have been face down in the street. Instead, she cast her eyes eastward, toward a clear horizon that had been stained with smoke only a few days before. She didn’t say anything, just looked on thoughtfully.</p><p>To say her emotions were mixed would be an understatement. Supposedly, Libertalia had gone up in a blaze that could be seen from the stadium walls. Olivia had been too afraid to climb up there herself but Nat had said the fire had all burned out by morning anyway. All that was left was a colossal black pillar that marked where the most terrifying raider camp in the east had been and the watery graves that awaited all who called it home.</p><p>It shouldn’t have worried her. Nightshade was more than capable of taking care of herself. And even if she wasn’t, shouldn’t Olivia have been terrified of her? She was a raider boss that knew her name and seemed to enjoy kidnapping her. More importantly, NIghtshade didn’t seem the type to forgive and forget when it came to the little jailbreak Piper had pulled and she was not looking forward to explaining it to her face. Despite all that, part of her wanted Nightshade to be alive. She had been good to her when she didn’t have to be, when it probably would have been easier to hurt her or sell her to get what she wanted.</p><p>Not that she would ever be going back to that racetrack again. She had seen Nightshade angry once and she had no desire to see it again.</p><p>“Are you hoping she’s dead or worried she’s dead?” Piper asked as they walked.</p><p>Olivia wished she knew. “She saved me from the other raiders,” was the answer she chose to give.</p><p>And maybe that’s all there was to it. “God, you have terrible taste in women, don’t you? I’m sure she’s fine, Blue. Trust me, I’ve met raiders, traders, and wasters of all kinds, and I can’t think of a single one I’d bet on in a fight with her. Hell, if it was between her and a deathclaw, I’d probably feel sorry for the deathclaw!”</p><p>“That’s comforting,” Olivia laughed, genuinely relieved that her favorite raider would live long enough to torment her a third time. It was her own fault. She kept giving her Nukas so of course she kept coming back. “Not that I’m looking for her again! She just seems to pop up wherever I go. Which is probably how she feels about me. Very mole rat of me.”</p><p>Piper was capable of putting two and two together. “You’re her pet mole rat, huh?”</p><p>“Just because she doesn’t tie me to chairs doesn’t mean she’s that nice to me.”</p><p>Nora cleared her throat and silenced their bickering for a few blocks. Olivia did her best to keep her eyes on the road but, between Piper and Nora, if it escaped their notice, the odds were pretty good that it would escape hers, too. She had never been very perceptive and had been something of a klutz throughout her adult life, a character flaw that had resulted in her bumping into many of her romantic interests in the most literal sense.</p><p>The roads at least seemed quiet. Gunfire from distant streets seemed to move along with them, as though Nora projected a sphere of terror that stopped any would-be fights with her presence alone. It made Olivia uncomfortable, rehashing the same inadequacies that had kept her in Diamond City while Nora and Piper went out to save the world. She wasn’t cut out for this. Her only measurable skill was drawing pity from the larger, scarier women in the Wasteland and hiding behind their legs while they fought off deathclaws, slavers, and the Institute.</p><p>A few blocks was as long as Piper could keep herself quiet, apparently, and soon began whispering to Olivia. “So?”</p><p>“So what?”</p><p>“So, what are you going to remember?”</p><p>She had actually been thinking that over since PIper mentioned the Memory Den a few days ago. Despite her complaints, protests, and very reasonable concerns, the idea of reliving memories from before the apocalypse was more than a little appealing. She had spent a long time wondering what memory to relive and was honestly still coming up blank, something that she was reluctant to admit. Who wanted to tell their best friend that their life lacked a notable high point?</p><p>Saying things like that was how people got depressed. “I have a few ideas.”</p><p>Piper narrowed her eyes playfully. “Come on, you can tell me. Or are they private times? I’m sure they have private loungers for just that sort of memory.”</p><p>“Oh, yes, I have all kinds of nasty, pre-war things I want to relive that you’ll never know about.”</p><p>“Hiding the truth, Blue? You should know better than to try and keep the press in the dark.” Piper adjusted her hat pointedly.</p><p>“The press has better things to worry about than what I get up to on my own time,” she snapped, more sullen than angry. If Piper did have a way of seeing what Olivia remembered, it wouldn’t exactly be the stuff of legends.</p><p>Wait, why did she even care? She wasn’t trying to impress Piper with - with <i>that.</i></p><p>Piper chuckled happily. “The press has many questions about pre-war rituals and pastimes. I could make a whole article about it.”</p><p>Olivia opened her mouth to respond but Nora got there first, surprising everyone. “Will you be adding centerfolds to the Publick or will this be purely academic?”</p><p>Mouth still open, Olivia left Piper to respond while she recovered her wits. Unfortunately for her, Piper was also caught on the back foot and so took long enough that Nora had to look back and make sure her charges were still present. “Are - uh - are you volunteering, then?”</p><p>Very smooth. Nora shrugged and chuckled, the sound resonating deep in her chest. “Depends. I’ll warn you, I don’t come cheap.”</p><p>When Nora’s eyes returned to the street, Piper caught Olivia’s attention and together they tried to work through this green shoot of humanity poking through the brick wall that Nora had raised around herself. Olivia silently urged Piper to keep the banter going. The more human Nora became, the less horrible Olivia felt about being alive. Even if the war was not exactly her fault, she had started to feel more at home in this future than she had as a broke delivery driver, one missed paycheck away from homelessness. Nora was the polar opposite, and anyone with a shred of humanity would have been heartbroken to see her fall so far.</p><p>Piper did her best to keep the jokes alive but that brick wall had been built to last, and Piper lacked the patience of a seasoned gardener. The shoot came free, snapping off in her fingers even as she tried to give it more room amidst the broken mortar, and soon she was forced to give up on making that hole any wider. When her gaze met Olivia’s once again, she tried to put into one look how much she appreciated the effort. Besides, it was far more than she had managed, just walking along in silence and wondering what the perfect thing to say might have sounded like.</p><p>Before long, the conversation turned to more mundane things like warnings and directions around town should she wander off, and Goodneighbor’s glowing signage came as less a welcome sign of safety than the suspicious dangling of bait at the end of a hook. Apparently, she was not supposed to talk to anyone, look anywhere, or touch anything without asking. Like a small child at Disney World, Olivia followed along, eyes wide, as her two adoptive parents led her to the Magic Kingdom that was the Memory Den.</p><p> </p><p>Goodneighbor was much how Piper remembered it, and it was for that reason that she all but dragged Nora and Olivia through the streets and into the Memory Den. The last story she had done here had taken her into the Third Rail for a real look at the city’s working folk, and what a look that had been. She could only remember bits and pieces but the one thing that stood out was a woman in a slim red dress with a beautiful singing voice who now had a whole lot of dirt on Piper Wright.</p><p>Just another place a young Piper Wright had forced her older self to avoid.</p><p>Well, maybe if Nora got caught up with this Kellogg brain chip thing and Olivia was - <i>no, nope, not happening!</i></p><p>The Memory Den’s red carpet entrance, red brick walls, and fondness for red curtains did nothing to help rein in her wandering mind. Neither did the woman lounging in the center of the room, her own red dress adorned with feathers and much more poofy than the elegant piece worn by Magnolia. The singer’s style was almost minimal, assuming she hadn’t changed her hair or taste in heels.</p><p>While Piper’s brain continued to betray her, she scarcely noticed Nick standing beside the lounging woman. What was he doing here? Oh, right. The brain chip thingy. Something about synth hardware and a hunch that Kellogg was not quite as human as he’d started out.</p><p>Nora went up to greet him and Irma, though her introductions were quickly rebuffed as the well-meaning proprietor shunted both of them into a back room so she might forget the incident as quickly as possible. Either Nick had said a little too much about the nature of their visit or asking for this particular doctor was enough to raise her hackles. She had done a little digging of her own into this Doctor Amari over the years but had turned up nothing more than exciting rumors. Was she really a secret Railroad agent that reprogrammed synth memories? It seemed too fantastical to be true, but separating fact from fiction was the job of the diligent journalist.</p><p>It was just another reason she would be accompanying Nick and Nora into the back room, leaving Olivia to enjoy a little taste of home. Letting her go through this alone without even snooping on what memory she chose was physically painful but that was a sacrifice she would have to make.</p><p>And it was something she could spin to make her look like a better friend than she really was. “Okay, Blue, this is it!”</p><p>She turned to see Olivia eyeing one of the loungers suspiciously. This one contained what looked like a ghoul, his clothes ragged and sloughing off as readily as his skin. The pods were clear glass with an old television screen that sat in front of the user’s face, but from what she understood it was a little more intimate than watching a holotape. Something about the setup dredged up the old memory and played it back as though it was really happening, with lots of electric signals being pumped through their skull to make all the sounds and smells and touches very real. The screen must have just made seeing it that much easier. Or maybe the chair didn’t do video. She wasn’t really sure.</p><p>But she did know that she could have watched Olivia’s memory through the side of the pod and seen what it was pre-war girls dreamed about, and Nora owed her an arm and a leg for making her give that up.</p><p>Olivia walked up to the pod and peered down at the ghoul using it. “So, anyone can see what I’m doing?”</p><p>“Planning on doing anything nasty?” The question was a joke but Olivia protested enough that she began to wonder how hard that dry spell was hitting her. “Okay, calm down, I’m only kidding. But if you start making too much noise, Irma will just kick you out. No big deal.”</p><p>“Thanks, Piper.”</p><p>“Anytime. Just talk to Irma and she’ll get you set up. And don’t worry, I’m not going to look in on you. This is your memory. Tell me all about it if you want, but this is for you, so enjoy it.” She put on her most gracious smile, pretending this was all part of the plan. “I’ll be sitting in the basement with Nora. Try not to be too jealous.”</p><p>Turning away from the pod, Olivia looked back toward where Nora had disappeared. “When you said you had to go to Goodneighbor, I kind of figured you’d have business somewhere else. Should I be worried?”</p><p>Probably. “It’s going to be fine. Nora’s just here to talk to a doctor. No big deal.”</p><p>She hated that Olivia was already immune to her lying voice. “Is this about Kellogg? On New Years -”</p><p>“You can’t hold me accountable for what I said on New Years!” That had been the night she taught Olivia to drink Wastelander style, which was just slowly draining a Nuka Cola and filling up what you drank with whatever hard liquor you had lying around.</p><p>It also wasn’t really Wasteland style so much as it was Wright style, but it was only a matter of time before it caught on. “- you said that she pulled something out of his head.”</p><p>“Ugh. Yeah. Just reached right in and <i>splorch</i>.”</p><p>Her disgust was mirrored tenfold on Olivia’s face. “How did - why would anyone think to do that?”</p><p>All Piper could do was shrug. “It’s Nora. She just knows things.”</p><p>It really was like she could see things the rest of them couldn’t. Piper had seen her sort through mountains of uninteresting junk to find a handful of bobby pins hiding in a garbage can in the time it took for her to ask what she was doing. She had a knack for finding shiny things and finding them very quickly. That was the kind of talent Piper could appreciate. The woman was a snoop’s best friend.</p><p>“It’s Nora,” Olivia repeated. Sometimes Piper forgot that Olivia remained in Diamond City every day and didn’t go exploring the Wasteland unless she was physically dragged into it. Of course she didn’t understand what it was like to follow Nora around. “I guess I’m glad we didn’t run into anyone on the way here. She might have gone rooting around for something interesting.”</p><p>She might not have followed her around but at least she was a quick study. “Small miracles,” Piper said with a sage nod.</p><p>“Okay, I guess I’ll hop in one of these things. Just come get me when you’re finished. I’ll be up here, reliving my best life.”</p><p>Piper frowned playfully. “Come on, don’t say that. Everyone I know is jealous of the roach girl whose only friend is the obnoxious journalist.”</p><p>“Next time I’m staying home with Nat. I like that part of our relationship.” Olivia waved toward the back of the room, rolling her eyes but smiling as she did. For all of her boring ways, Olivia was a good friend, and not just because she was willing to put up with Nat. “Have fun!”</p><p>Olivia plodded over to where Irma was lounging and struck up an awkward conversation that Piper would have loved to stick around for. Whatever she was saying had Irma fidgeting in her seat almost as badly as Nick. The girl really did need help when it came to women.</p><p>Not that Piper was much better. Olivia might have bad taste in women but Piper seemed to repel them altogether. Most of them, anyway. But not the one in the Third Rail. That one had been very interested in her. That one, with her red dress and her crooning voice, had tied her tongue in knots and pulled every secret from her lips, leaving her breathless, defenseless, and empty. The memory of it still had her face turning as red as that damn dress.</p><p>Piper adjusted her own annoyingly red coat and tried not to think about the color that was splattered all over the place. She needed a drink, and the worst part was, she really wanted to go get one.</p><p> </p><p>As it turned out, she could have stayed with Olivia and watched her for almost an hour. She had assumed that they would be able to just walk into the basement, plug some cables into Nick, and the Institute’s darkest secrets would be theirs by lunch.</p><p>But Doctor Amari was a doctor, and brain surgery was brain surgery, so she was left standing awkwardly in the cramped room, staring at four brick walls with a fifth for conversation. Nora stayed next to her, hovering as though wanting to say something but unwilling to take her eyes off the slow procedure in front of them. Nick was talking constantly but it was a mundane recitation of his morning routine at a level of granularity only possible for a mechanized detective.</p><p>“Keep on talking, that’s it,” was the only response Doctor Amari ever gave. That was probably a good thing. If she got too distracted by Nick’s accounting of how Ellie filed the paperwork, she might cross an important wire and Olivia would need to take over as lead detective for Diamond City.</p><p>God, what a train wreck that would be. Maybe she could get her a job helping with cases. Nat would go crazy over that, which would force Olivia to actually take the job instead of burrowing underground like the mole rat she was.</p><p>Nora was giving her another look and only then did Piper realize she was smiling. “Sorry. Mind’s somewhere else.”</p><p>The brick wall nodded and turned back to the procedure. She should just go upstairs. Olivia would be all settled in and doing something incredibly boring in her old life that would give her so much ammunition the next time they were drunk together. Her favorite day was probably sitting in an empty room watching the paint dry on the walls. Or lounging in a kitchen while someone else made her dinner. Or lying in the grass, loafing on the CIT lawn when she should have been doing homework, listening to other students diligently work away on their own problems while she looked at clouds.</p><p>She had nearly made it to the stairs when Nora spoke up. “Hey. Do you have a second?”</p><p>She turned away from the door and looked pointedly at Nick and the good doctor. “Sorry, I was just going out for a camera so I could get this on record.”</p><p>“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t -”</p><p>“I’m kidding, Nora.” Piper wandered over, watching as the fifth brick wall began to match the shade of the other four. “What’s on your mind? I hear this is the place to let it out.”</p><p>Nora smirked. “I would, but nobody wants to see that.”</p><p>“Come on, you’ve got the most boring girl in the world upstairs and you’re telling me you don’t have anything you’d want to remember?”</p><p>It was not the right question to ask someone in Nora’s boots, but she shuffled in them anyway, looking thoughtful. “Lots of late nights staring at books. Before that, a lot of people dying. And before that, a lot of hiding in my room, hoping my dad wouldn’t come home angry. Not much I’d want to see again.”</p><p>Piper felt like she had just been punched in the stomach. “Shit. I’m sorry, I -”</p><p>“No, don’t apologize. I just dropped a piano on you from ten stories up. That’s not fair to you.” She fidgeted again, taking a long moment before continuing. “The day Shaun came home with us. I’d like to see that again.”</p><p>She still had not gotten used to the motherly side of Nora. Piper settled in beside her, leaning against the same table and looking up at her. “Are you worried about seeing him again?”</p><p>“No. Well, part of me is, but not all of me. I’m trying to keep myself focused, you know? He’s alive. He’s at the Institute. I want him back, so I need to find a way inside the Institute. Simple.” She nodded toward Doctor Amari. “If I have to go into the memories of the man who killed my husband to do that, then that’s where I have to go.”</p><p>Apparently Kellogg was not the only one who was more machine than human being. “That’s still a lot.”</p><p>“It helps that I got to kill him first.” It took another look at Nora’s face to realize she was trying to make a joke. Piper let out a fairly unconvincing sniff of laughter and hoped it was enough. “I’m just trying to focus on him. He’s all that matters. I’ll walk up to the door, ring the bell, and if they don’t give him back, we can worry about the rest.”</p><p>Of course Nora would view raiding the Institute as plainly as going up the street and finding the right address. For her, it probably was. It seemed like nothing in the world could touch her and the only man who had managed to do so now had his brains resting on an aluminum tray.</p><p>“I’m just,” Nora’s voice faltered as she spoke more quietly, giving Piper cause to lean closer without really noticing. “Is this crazy?”</p><p>Again, Piper could only look at where Nick was recounting the newest rips in his trench coat along with their exact measurements and a list of potential causes. “A little.”</p><p>Nora chuckled. “I don’t mean this. I’m about to see whatever was that man’s brain. Maybe I’ll see a lifelong psychopathic murderer, maybe a doting father broken by life, but more likely I’ll see a little of both; just a man, nothing more. I’ve seen that before. I’ll see my son. I don’t know if I’m ready for that, yet, but it’s about to happen anyway. All of that is, well, not normal, but I can handle it. But what comes next… Piper, the Institute has my son, and I don’t think they’ll be very eager to give him back. They took him for a reason. Whatever that is, it’s between me and my son, so it’s going in the ground.”</p><p>Piper nodded slowly. She would have done the same for her little sister, albeit less effectively. Nora seemed like she might actually be able to stand against the Institute and come out on top. “When you put it like that, yeah. I see what you mean.”</p><p>“I’m going to find them, and I’m going to bring him back, but how many lives am I going to change because of this? This is big, Piper. I have to do it, but if I stop and think too long about it, I start wondering if maybe I should just give up.”</p><p>They watched Doctor Amari continue to probe Nick’s brain for a few more minutes before she finally stood up, stretched out her neck, and gestured toward Nora. “We’re ready for you. I’ll have to guide you from here, so don’t be alarmed if you still hear my voice when you go under. It might come through a little distorted, but I should be able to hear you, too, so keep in constant communication. Describe what you’re seeing, feeling, and hearing as best as you can.”</p><p>The memory lounger beside her opened on cue, silent and wholly uninviting. Nora regarded it with the same love she might have had for the electric chair. With an almost imperceptible sigh, she started to make her way across the room.</p><p>Piper caught her arm before she could go far. “Hey.”</p><p>Nora turned, for once not flinching at the touch. She looked nervous, or as nervous as a human deathclaw could manage to be, and even that tiny crack in her invincibility was enough to make Piper feel sorry for her.</p><p>“I’ve been looking at the Institute for a long time. Not a day goes by I’m not terrified I’ll wake up one morning and find Nat gone, disappeared because her big sister couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Hell, what if I don’t wake up at all? She’d be on her own. I think about putting my pen down every day.” She glanced over at Nick and Amari to make sure she was only spilling her guts to one person at a time, today. “I don’t know why they took your son, but I’ll help you find him, whatever it takes. No one should have to live with that kind of loss, and if we can keep the rest of the world from living in fear of it happening to them, I’ll make peace with whatever we have to do to get there.”</p><p>She wasn’t exactly sure about that last part, and her brain was already scrambling for corner cases that she would avoid. She had never been one for whom the ends justified the means, but when it came to family, she was willing to close her eyes just a bit.</p><p>Nora nodded slowly, her own hand coming up to meet Piper’s. “Thanks, Piper.”</p><p>Her hand fell away a moment later and, just like that, she was sitting down in the chair, ready for whatever came next. Piper watched as the lid closed and Nora, the cold, emotionless, world-burning supersoldier, set her jaw and put her eyes on the screen. Doctor Amari soon began guiding the both of them through whatever strange dreamscape they were looking at, with Nora offering short responses about what she was seeing on her end. Throughout the whole thing, Nick was eerily silent, his eyes fixed on the floor.</p><p>Piper sat back against the table and chanced a look up the stairs. Hopefully Olivia would come out of this with a good story.</p>
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<a name="section0019"><h2>19. New Friends</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Olivia and Nora both relive old memories</p>
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    <p>“Are you in the wrong place, sweetheart? You look a little lost.”</p><p>It was asked in the disdainful drawl of a woman who knew she was having her time wasted. Olivia resisted the urge to just say yes and go running behind Piper’s trench coat, eager to head back to the familiar comforts of home. Instead, she stood her ground, keenly aware that Piper had brought her here for a reason and unwilling to give up on that just yet.</p><p>“I don’t think so. This is the Memory Den, right? I heard you help people with old memories.”</p><p>The woman on the red shezlong eyed her up and down slowly. “We do. Did you come in behind Mister Valentine? We don’t normally advertise our services and we don’t accept all clients, but if you’re with Nick, I suppose I’d be willing to consider offering you a seat in one of our loungers. Call it a trial run.”</p><p>Olivia, wilting somewhat under the woman’s predatory gaze, wiggled uncomfortably. “Good! Thank you. I had a memory picked out and everything.”</p><p>“Did you really? Normally we try to pick strong memories for the first session.” Irma continued to look her over, still frowning. “Something with family, preferably. I find nothing makes quite so strong an impression on the mind as love.”</p><p>Well, that shot down most of her ideas. She wasn’t in love with anything except her mattress right now. Her family was long gone and, despite the love she had for them, she didn’t have any memories that stood out. It had been so long since she had seen them and that wasn’t even considering they had been gone two hundred years.</p><p>“Is that a problem?” Irma now sat up a little straighter, taken aback by the long pause. It had been an easy question. She probably thought this girl was some kind of escaped slave or something. “I’m afraid the loungers are very intense experiences and can provoke a similarly intense response upon their use. That’s why we don’t let just anyone in. If there is a history of… unpleasantness in your past, I would advise against using our services.”</p><p>“No, nothing like that!” Olivia sputtered, looking helplessly at the stairs where Piper was just now disappearing. “It’s, uh, I think I have one, actually. It’s from a long time ago. I met someone and they helped me get out of a really bad relationship.”</p><p>The mind had a funny way of remembering teenage romances. At the time, she had been in love, head-over-heels, for a girl she had barely known beyond her first name. She had gotten her out of a bad relationship and had set her up in the only good and healthy one of her life. It ended when they went to different colleges and she had never really gotten over it.</p><p>Not until the end of the world, anyway. Irma settled down against the cushions, unconvinced. “Alright, tell me about this memory.”</p><p>“Well, I was with a friend of mine. We were exploring downtown, trying to get away from some guys who were following us. We ended up sneaking into old catacombs under a church and, uh, well, you know.” Olivia looked up at Irma and shrugged.</p><p>Irma’s eyes narrowed. “The Old North Church?”</p><p>“Yeah! That’s the one.” Olivia smiled awkwardly, repeating the slogan they had used during the field trip. “Follow the Freedom Trail.”</p><p>“Right.” The lounging woman sat up a little straighter, looking over her shoulder toward where Piper and the rest had disappeared. “And you’re not here for our other services? I know your friends are keeping Doctor Amari busy but she’ll be able to see you soon enough if that’s what you require.”</p><p>“No, no, I don’t need anything like that.” The last thing she wanted was to go scuba diving in someone else’s brain. “I don’t need any new memories. I just want to revisit an old one. It’s important to me. Sorry, I know I’m not making this easy, but Piper had the idea and, well, I’d really like to see it again. It would be nice to see something from my old life again.”</p><p>Realizing that would probably require a bit more explanation, Olivia began awkwardly shuffling and preparing to recount her experience as a bag of frozen peas when Irma cut in. “Of course. My apologies. I’ll get you set up in the lounger right away. Just relax and let the machine do its work. Doctor Amari will - ah, here she is, now. Doctor Amari, this young lady is here with our mutual friends. Do you think you can set her up with a memory? It sounds like I’ll be able to handle the rest while you’re with Nick and his companions.”</p><p>Doctor Amari proved to be a young woman with short hair, tan skin, and an accent Olivia found far too distracting. The lab coat and air of education helped things not at all. “Is that so? Of course, anything I can do to help, just let me know. You poor thing. I don’t remember seeing you before. Your friends downstairs, you’re with them?”</p><p>She had no idea why she was a poor thing, but at the moment, she really didn’t care. “Yeah. Just here to relax. Take in the sights.”</p><p>“I understand completely. That explains why - well, nevermind. You know all about that, I’m sure. Come, have a seat. Let’s get that memory of yours playing and Irma will take care of the rest. Your friends will be along shortly.”</p><p>Olivia allowed herself to be settled into the lounger, happily accepting Amari’s hand as she guided her into the chair. She wasn’t even looking at the electrodes poking out of the headrest and barely noticed it conforming to her head. “Thank you. I wasn’t sure about this when Piper mentioned it but I think I really needed to do it.”</p><p>Amari’s eyebrows rose in pleasant surprise. “Is Piper one of your friends, too? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. The way she writes, I imagine she would be the first person someone like you would look for.”</p><p>Someone like her? Olivia blinked, trying to piece together what that was supposed to mean as the pod door began to close. She felt tingling against the back of her head as it did and soon her vision was dominated by the television screen just inches from her face.</p><p>“Now, think very clearly about this memory, dear. Can you do that for me?”</p><p>Never one to deny a pretty girl, Olivia did as she was asked and focused, allowing the strange turns of phrase to slip from her mind. She must have just missed something between Irma and Amari.</p><p>So she wound the clock back two hundred years and more, thinking of the time she met a young woman on a high school field trip. She thought about the boys that were bullying her, taunting her as they rode the bus into the city, driving her nearly insane until this one girl had offered her an escape. That one act of kindness had turned into so much more, not only helping her survive the horrors of high school but also cleaning up her own act enough to get into college.</p><p>“Just like you said! The Old North Church. I’ll load up the memory lounger now. Irma, could you keep an eye on her while I attend to the others downstairs?”</p><p>Olivia did not hear a reply. She was already lost, her vision fixed on the dilapidated walls and dimly-lit catacombs beneath the church, and on the girl so carefully holding her hand as they pressed themselves together in one of the many cramped corners.</p><p> </p><p>Piper peered over Doctor Amari’s shoulder at the screen that supposedly matched what Nora was seeing inside the Kellogg brain chip. All she could see were half-remembered scenes of strange people in stranger places that flashed like a strobe light a dozen times a second. More than once she had turned away and stared at the wall to avoid getting sick.</p><p>At least Doctor Amari knew what was happening. “I think I’ve found you a place to start. It’s an old memory, but we should be able to start moving through the cognitive connections from there.”</p><p>There was no reply from Nora, but the scene quickly coalesced into one Piper had expected. The tragic beginning of Kellogg’s life was summarized in a single picture; a small boy sitting on clean sheets in a lovingly-upholstered room, surrounded by comic books, and watched over by a tired but smiling mother. It looked almost idyllic. Then came the banging of a heavy fist on the door and a man’s angry shouting to turn down the quiet radio. It took no trained eye to see the bruises on the mother’s face.</p><p>Piper felt herself begin chewing her lip. After what Nora had said about her own father, this could not have been easy for her to see. A child from an abusive home who grew up to kill people for a living. She found herself already stringing words together to comfort her when she woke up.</p><p>And that was only the beginning. Doctor Amari hummed and looked at the strange numbers on her screen that Piper had long since stopped trying to make sense of. “This memory is a strong one. There are many connections here, and I’m certain one of them will lead us to your son. Try focusing on the child and I’ll see if I can find another memory.”</p><p>The scene abruptly shifted into a dozen more and prompted more curious noises from Doctor Amari. “Okay, getting a lot of different memories here. Focusing on the subject is always a risky business, but with so little to work with, I thought we might - there! Family! That’s the key.”</p><p>Piper would have been much less useful in that chair. Nora, however, took the direction like she had done this a hundred times, and another scene resolved itself on the monitor. This one made her chew her lip even harder. The young boy, all grown up, had found himself a loving wife. They were washing dishes together, listening to the radio and talking quietly as they did. In the background was a small child in a crib.</p><p>She knew the next scene was coming even before it happened and no one said a word as it resolved. Nora had learned to navigate the memories on the chip as quickly as she picked up everything else. They followed Kellogg, the young husband and doting father, down a narrow hallway and into an underground bunker where, after a brief and bloody firefight, he killed the four men who had taken that loving family away from him.</p><p>Piper’s eyes drifted to Nora’s but found them still fixed on her own screen. She tried to pick through her own memories, thinking back to when Kellogg had exchanged those final words with Nora. She wondered if he had known what he was doing when he killed Nora’s husband and took her son. After seeing a memory like this, after seeing what he did to avenge his own family, how could he not?</p><p>More scenes went by; seedy bars, gunfights, nights spent staring at an old photograph. They all went by in a blur.</p><p>Until the vault.</p><p>The inside of the vault was dark except for small, white running lights along the narrow aisle. To either side were large metal pods, each filled with a face that Piper could not make out. Each of the pods was running dark, but two were lit from within, spilling white light into the scene and bringing all the focus to them. Two pods, sitting across from each other at the end of the hall, and a familiar face hiding within the frost of one of them.</p><p>But Nora wasn’t looking at that one. She wasn’t looking at herself or Kellogg or the men in hazmat suits.</p><p>She was looking at her husband, and her son, and was not moving.</p><p>Doctor Amari was trying to say something but sounded so unsure that the words nearly failed to come out altogether. “I - if we can - yes, I think this is… good. Focus on your son. Just like that.”</p><p>If she was doing anything but staring at the screen, Piper had no idea. She was too busy watching Nora - the real Nora. She hadn’t realized she had left the monitor until she was standing over her pod, hovering over Nora’s shoulder and watching the scene play out on the part of the pod’s display that she could see.</p><p>It could not have taken more than a minute, but it felt like hours as Nora was forced to watch, again, in perfect detail, the murder of her husband and the loss of her only son.</p><p>The glass felt cool beneath Piper’s hand, an uncaring barrier that stopped her from resting her hand on Nora’s shoulder. She hadn’t even realized she was reaching out. When she looked down to see what had stopped her fingers, she saw the faintest gleaming of light around Nora’s eyes. Piper closed her eyes, then, unwilling to see any more of either the memory or of the grieving mother’s tears. This wasn’t for them. They shouldn’t have been seing this.</p><p>Doctor Amari cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t - I’ve found a memory you might want to see. Just one more, okay? Focus on your son. Just one more time.”</p><p>Piper’s hand stayed where it was until the final memory was finished. They saw Shaun, around Nat’s age, living in Diamond City. He had been right on Piper’s doorstep and she hadn’t even noticed. Some journalist she was. He had wanted to be found and she had been so damn focused on McDonough that she missed everything.</p><p>She nearly missed the man teleporting into Kellogg’s living room, passing it off for a trick of his memory. Two secrets, then, for the price of one. Nora had gotten to see Shaun again, growing up without his mother in a strange and alien world, and now they knew why the Institute was so hard to find. They were able to just appear wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted. The thought nearly sent her panicking.</p><p>But she was too busy watching Nora, waiting for the pod to finish sliding open and the woman inside to move. For a long time, she didn’t. She stayed seated, moving only to wipe what was left of the tears from her eyes, and she didn’t say a word.</p><p>Piper eventually crept over to her, keeping silent as Doctor Amari busied herself with Nick. She had no idea what to say or where to even start.</p><p>So she let her hand fall on Nora’s shoulder, giving it a tentative squeeze and pulling away before she overstayed her welcome. Nora’s hand caught hers before she could. Her eyes remained fixed on the far wall but her grip was strong enough to keep Piper from moving even if she’d wanted to.</p><p>They stayed that way for a long time, silent, until Nora finally stood, giving her hand a final squeeze as she did. “Sorry.”</p><p>Piper raised an eyebrow. “For?”</p><p>Nora just gestured at the chair. “Going to pieces like that. I didn’t mean for anyone to see that.”</p><p>“Don’t apologize for being human, Nora.” She looked toward the stairs and back at Nora meaningfully. “Listen, I should go check and make sure Olivia hasn’t gotten into trouble or anything. You leave that girl alone for five minutes and she’s adopted a new pet or been kidnapped by raiders. If you need a second -”</p><p>“Yeah,” Nora laughed softly and wiped her eyes again. “I’ll be up in a minute. Go make sure she hasn’t run for mayor or adopted a deathclaw or anything.”</p><p>Knowing Olivia, she would be sitting on a pile of caps that she had just found squirreled away under the carpet, or her memory lounger had actually been loaded with all McDonough’s evil plans and the Institute could be foiled by the afternoon. Piper was smiling at the thought but was smiling more at Nora’s teasing. They both deserved better friends in this world and they could do worse than starting with each other.</p><p>Piper left Nora in the back of the room, shaken but recovering quickly. When she got to the main floor of the Memory Den, she found Irma in exactly the same place and all the loungers with their hatches open. She looked to the many side rooms the place boasted and suddenly became worried she really had picked an inappropriate memory.</p><p>Although, better that than the alternative. If she had finished early, there was no finer place in Goodneighbor to spend time than the Third Rail, and Piper had sworn she would never go in there again. The last thing she needed was Olivia seeing her crumble in front of Magnolia.</p><p>Irma turned toward Piper as she made her way into the room. “Hello, dear. I trust you found everything to your satisfaction?”</p><p>That was one way to put it. “Yeah. Your doc is a real miracle worker, you know?”</p><p>“Oh, you don’t have to tell me. She’s the best there is. I’m lucky to have her sticking around in a place like this.”</p><p>Piper looked around at the side rooms pointedly before coming back to Irma. “So, where’s the other one?”</p><p>“What other one, dear?”</p><p>Irma was giving her a strange look, one Piper was ill-equipped to read. “The boring one? Probably had a memory about some really good eggs she had for breakfast or something. Did you kick her out already?”</p><p>“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Irma shifted in her seat, giving Piper a strangely intense look. “You came in here alone with Nick and that vault dweller. If you had any other friends outside, perhaps they found some mutual friends and left with them.”</p><p>Piper felt the blood draining from her face. “I’m sorry?”</p><p>While her own face was growing white, all the color was now flushing fully into Irma’s, and her voice dropped to a whisper. “I would expect more care from someone like you. Our mutual friends came and moved her. She’s safe, now, just like you wanted.”</p><p>Irma seemed to notice the creaking of Piper’s gloves as her hands balled up into fists. “What do you mean, safe?”</p><p> </p><p>“Do you think they’re still out there?”</p><p>A mop of tousled brown hair, curly and vaguely boyish, appeared from around the corner, and Olivia found herself staring into her own eyes. This was not how she had expected to experience things. She had hoped to be inside that first head, feeling the delicate fingers that had tangled themselves in her own, trying not to think about how close their bodies were together.</p><p>Instead, she watched, disembodied, as that head disappeared into the alcove once more. She willed herself forward until she could see the girl hiding next to this other Olivia. Dark skinned and smaller than her, she was not her usual type, but all that did was underscore how slow a learner she really was. She still remembered her name, the sound coming back to her across a great distance, though she could not have been more than a few miles from where all this had happened so long ago.</p><p>The other Olivia whispered back. “I don’t think so.”</p><p>She might have said more but she was too busy blushing and trying not to stare. If Olivia had been in possession of a body, she would have groaned and rolled her eyes. She had always known she was bad with girls but this was her first time seeing it in third person. How she had ever made this work was beyond her.</p><p>While the Olivia with a body giggled nervously, and the sweet girl beside her answered with her own sweet sounds, eavesdropper Olivia began playing with her surroundings. She was in a memory, yes, but not in the way she had thought. How far could she go? She hadn’t gone back in time, so she doubted she could go upstairs even if she’d wanted to. A cursory look down the hallway behind her, in which she did not turn but sort of snapped that part of the world into view, confirmed her suspicions. The hall had snaked around beneath the church, its walls lined with coffins and plaques commemorating the dead, but she could not remember exactly how, and so the hall sort of fuzzed out. There was a left turn at the end of the hall but looking down that hall only revealed a black abyss that extended forever. She had forgotten what was there, and so nothing had ever been there.</p><p>It was a horrifying thing to look at and so she quickly backed away. Her attention to detail, always suspect, manifested in the way every brick was the exact same red on the walls, producing an almost cartoonish appearance if she looked at them too long. Where there were no bricks, swathes of white mortar filled in the gaps in a way that was wholly unconvincing.</p><p>But that was just as well. She was not here for the scenery, she was here to follow the girl now tugging her younger self out into the hallway. God, she missed that smile. “Come on, let’s keep exploring.”</p><p>If Olivia could have smiled, she would have beamed as brightly as her remembered self, and she followed in trace as surely as she had so many years ago.</p><p>The catacombs were not the most romantic place for a first date, but when you were a young girl, you made do. They were no longer high school students on a poorly-chaperoned trip to a historical site of little interest, but were exploring an ancient crypt full of curses and treasure. Like small children playing make believe, they scampered through the dank and unlit passages, using a lighter to find their way. From where Olivia was hovering, the whole hallway was lit by ambient, sourceless light, but the lighter reminded her of how it truly looked, and her vision abruptly changed to what might have been so long ago. Darkness took her, surrounding everything but the two girls, leaving them in a flickering orange spotlight that dominated center stage. There was nothing in the world but them.</p><p>Their explorations and hushed whispers continued as they wound their way through the catacombs. Olivia had been reading off a name plate when the other girl giggled. “Ugh. Finding your name on a dead person’s plaque is so weird.”</p><p>The old Olivia giggled back. “Why?”</p><p>“Because it means you have an old person name, duh.”</p><p>“Remy isn’t old.”</p><p>The other girl nudged her playfully. “Remilda is. I think my parents found the oldest woman in all of England when they decided to name me. You’re lucky. You got a pretty name, at least.”</p><p>Seeing how poorly she handled compliments in high school, it was a wonder she had not managed to get any better at it over the years. Even hearing her name was pretty sent Olivia into an awkward spiral. “Oh. Thanks. I like Remy. It’s nice.”</p><p>Olivia nearly abandoned the memory on the spot, but the show continued and the spectral camera bobbed along behind them. She hadn’t exactly curated the memory, but it was something that came to her on the walk over. So much of this relationship had shaped who she was. It had been her first real girlfriend, with all the firsts that went along with that, and it had pushed her forward into the world hard enough to land her at CIT. Her parents had been so proud. Honestly, they probably would have preferred to keep Remy during the breakup, watching the young woman excel in her studies while Olivia floundered and embarrassed the family name.</p><p>She listened to her past self talk about school like it was the only thing in the world and about the war like it would be over one day. They talked of such small things, and Olivia found her mind wandering even in the memory. It made her think of Piper, of their night on New Years Eve where she had taught her how to drink Wasteland style - which was definitely not a thing - and they had talked about the world like it hadn’t ended centuries before.</p><p>The memory came to an end long before the passageways did, at an old plaque cordoned off by a chain. Olivia, good girl that she was, did not dare cross that line, but Remy did. Remy reached up and put her hand on the metal, nudging it just enough to make it spin.</p><p>“The Freedom Trail,” she said as she rotated it. “Why do you think they made this one spin?”</p><p>New Olivia was no sharper than the old, so the answer would have been the same. “I don’t know. Probably a secret tunnel.”</p><p>“Going where?” Remy giggled.</p><p>“Underground. This is where the real government is, with lizard people and the Illuminati.”</p><p>The comment held as much weight as anything else, including the more likely explanation that the plate had just been fastened incorrectly. The old Olivia reached out and started to spin it, stopping whenever she felt the urge.</p><p>The urge came when Remy’s hand met with hers again. They fell away together, the mystery forgotten, and stayed entwined when Remy’s lighter mysteriously went out. Olivia’s spectral eyes remained keen, and she watched as Remy leaned in and took the step she had never been able to thank her for no matter how hard she tried. Beneath the earth, surrounded by the bones of the dead, and completely in the dark, the only thing she had thought about was something worth living for. She hadn’t been afraid, then. It hadn’t even been strange.</p><p>Olivia watched as her past self so tentatively reached for Remy’s side, so carefully mirroring the motions of the braver girl’s lips. She had needed this, in that time and in this one.</p><p>Whatever had happened to Remy, she hoped it was good. She hoped it was peaceful. She hoped that, wherever she was now, she was in a brighter place, with a brighter girl, still smiling and laughing and making that other girl glow.</p><p>When the memory ended, fading to white, Olivia found her throat had gone tight. She was vaguely aware of herself as a person again, sitting in a chair rather than floating through space. The world began to fade in around her, the memory resolving into a screen inches from her face with big letters that read PLEASE STAND BY.</p><p>She quickly cleared her throat and tried to compose herself as the glass lifted away. Knowing her luck, Piper would be standing by the pod, ready to give her hell for being such a hopeless dork.</p><p>There was someone standing by the pod, but it wasn’t Piper. For a moment, Olivia’s heart stopped beating and she thought she had strayed back into the memory. A dark-skinned woman in a long brown coat stood beside the pod, short, silver hair reminding her of the young girl she had just finished remembering and an experiment with hair dye conducted over that summer. But this woman was not Remy. She was tall, imposing, and built much more strongly than the younger girl had been. Olivia found herself looking up into the twinkling eyes of a very amused stranger.</p><p>“Well, it’s not very often I get to meet a new friend in person. Must be my lucky day. What’s your name?”</p><p>Still very much on the back foot, she could not do much more than answer honestly. “Olivia.”</p><p>“Real name, already? You’ve got guts, kid. I like you. Normally it takes a long time to get new additions settled in like that.” The woman held out a hand that Olivia took on instinct and winced as her hand was nearly crushed. “The name’s Glory, and it’s your lucky day, Olivia, because I’m here to rescue you. Welcome to the Railroad.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Missing Person</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Olivia is introduced to the Railroad while Piper is forced to confront an old flame in order to get her back. Meanwhile, Nat takes things into her own hands.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“But she didn’t come home with you!” Nat was angry enough to shout at Piper, something she almost never did. She loved her sister but this was just too much. “Did you look for her? Did you -”</p>
<p>“We did, Nat, we looked everywhere. We looked under every rock, in every room, even at the Third Rail. Someone just walked in, grabbed her out of the chair, and walked out.”</p>
<p>Piper was holding her head and staring at the floor, not able to look Nat in the eyes. Nat felt like screaming. She didn’t know what the Third Rail was but if Olivia was gone, she should have looked at the Tenth Rail, too. She should have kept looking until she found her. “You know the Institute’s out there! You know better than anyone! But you left her alone and now she’s gone!”</p>
<p>“I know, I know!” Piper put her hands out the way she did when she was really freaked out. Good. She should be freaking out. “I’ll find her, kiddo, I promise. I don’t think it was the Institute that snatched her, but -”</p>
<p>“Of course it was! Who else would it be?”</p>
<p>Piper sputtered. “You have no idea how many friends that girl makes! It’s not just roaches, you know, it’s raiders, too. Wouldn’t be surprised if one of them walked in and said hello while we were away. Fuck! I knew I shouldn’t have left her alone!”</p>
<p>Still in her Wasteland clothes, Piper had hardly been in the door five minutes and Nat was already pushing her back out. She didn’t want to, but this was Liv! She was out there, alone, without Big Green or anybody to help her. When Piper wasn’t around, she was another big sister she could go to and there weren’t enough to those to just start losing them outside the city!</p>
<p>“I knew she should have stayed home,” Nat grumbled, more to herself than to Piper. She still wanted Piper to hear it, though.</p>
<p>Piper sighed. “I know, kid. It’ll be okay, I promise. I’m heading back out there tomorrow to go looking for her. Wherever she is, I’ll track her down.”</p>
<p>“Why tomorrow? She could be in trouble! She could need help!”</p>
<p>Again, Piper just sighed. “I know, I know. I just thought that - I don’t know. Maybe I could manage something tonight. I think I know where to start and there’s some old buildings out there. Probably still empty. Nora cleared out the super mutants, last I heard.”</p>
<p>“Well, she’s going to be helping, isn’t she?” Nat glared up at Piper, hoping it would go right through to the other woman. It should have been the other vault dweller that got kidnapped. “That’s the least she could do. You always go out to help her and she never does anything for us.”</p>
<p>“That’s -” Piper stopped herself before she finished lying. “She’s been through a lot.”</p>
<p>“So has Liv.”</p>
<p>“And I haven’t let her forget it. She’s been good, lately. Trust me. I’m not letting her off the hook.” Piper turned back toward the door. She looked tired and ragged and worried, but Liv was gone and Piper could do anything. She could face down deathclaws and raiders and the Institute all at once! She had to go out there and help Liv!</p>
<p>And if Nora went out there, too, they could definitely bring her back. “So you’ll make her help you look, right?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, of course. I’m sure she’ll help.” Piper knelt down in front of Nat and put her hands on her shoulders. “I know you really liked her, kiddo, but just trust me, okay? We’ll get her back and you’ll be back to spending time with your boring old aunt before you know it.”</p>
<p>Nat screwed up her face unhappily. “She’s not my aunt. She’s like you when you’re not here.”</p>
<p>She had been sleeping over at Liv’s for weeks, now, and she was having a hard time imagining going back to staying here alone or spending the night with Nina. She finally had a good thing going with one big sister who saved the world and the other who stayed home with her and made weird jokes with her weird pet roach. She didn’t want that to change.</p>
<p>Liv had promised she would be back in a few days. When Piper had finally convinced her to leave, she promised she would bring something back and go right back to being the boring one. She had left with Piper before. They had been kidnapped by raiders before. That was how they had met. They should have been able to handle anything some stupid town could throw at them. Piper had been there a dozen times and she had promised everything would be fine.</p>
<p>Somehow this was Nora’s fault. That other vault dweller had never liked Liv. She had probably left her alone in the lounger on purpose and hadn’t helped Piper look at all.</p>
<p>Piper had been quiet while Nat stared at the floor. When she finally looked up, Piper looked even more sad than when she had walked in. Nat settled down a little, seeing that. She should have known Piper would be broken up over Liv being gone. The two were best friends.</p>
<p>“Sorry. I just miss her.”</p>
<p>Her big sister knelt down again, quietly putting her hands on her shoulders and pulling her in for a hug. “I know, kiddo. I’m sorry. I promise I’ll find her, okay? Just hold down the fort for me. And don’t worry about feeding that stupid bug of hers! I don’t want it eating you. Those things can live a few days without eating one of my newspapers.”</p>
<p>Big Green wouldn’t hurt her and she knew it, but she nodded into Piper’s shoulder all the same. “Just be careful.”</p>
<p>Piper chuckled, releasing her and standing up again. “I’m always careful. I have to find Nora and grab some travel fuel but I’ll be back soon, don’t worry!”</p>
<p>Nat was used to watching her sister walk out the door. She was used to feeling excited and sad and lonely and free all at once. This time was different. This time, she was just angry.</p>
<p>She plodded her way across town in the new boots Liv had gotten her for Christmas. They kept out the cold and the wet so well that she had stopped avoiding puddles because she knew they couldn’t get to her socks. Between that and all the other new clothes, she was perfectly ready for her own adventure, and there was no better place to start than by saving Liv from the Institute.</p>
<p>Security ignored her as she wandered into the basement, finding her way past the boilers and into the little office that Liv had put together. There was a little terminal and a big metal box where she put all her papers so Big Green wouldn’t eat them. His food sat on the desk, a pile of old Publick articles from the weeks before. The stack was getting smaller but there were still dozens just lying around. She was lucky there weren’t any more hungry roaches sniffing around.</p>
<p>The happy squeal that greeted her echoed off the sheer stone walls and the strangely comforting sight of a giant, green radroach scuttling out of the shadows soon followed. She popped one of the papers off the stack and turned to find Big Green scuttling toward the door, looking around behind boilers and making clicking noises.</p>
<p>“She’s not here,” Nat said, holding out the paper.</p>
<p>It took a long time for Big Green to come over, his legs tapping against the stone anxiously, assuming a giant roach could be anxious. She watched him slowly take the paper, nibbling it bit by bit as he scuttled back toward the door two more times in the hope his favorite human had come back.</p>
<p>When he finally finished his meal and returned to Nat’s side, she put her hand out and patted him on the head. “She’s gone, but don’t worry, I’m going to get her back.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Olivia had left Goodneighbor confused, afraid, and at the mercy of yet another woman who could break her in half with one hand. Everything from the lounger to the door was a blur. Glory had told her that she was friends with Piper and that everything would be fine. She was being taken somewhere safe.</p>
<p>Waking up from the lounger had left her in something of a fugue state because she hadn’t really realized what was happening until she was being ushered inside a very familiar-looking church and into the basement. The confused feeling of being trapped inside a waking dream was so intense she had nearly gotten sick on the spot, something Glory said was normal before leading her through a secret door and into another set of catacombs. Those memory loungers really were something else.</p>
<p>She said as much when Glory began leading her down another flight of stairs. “Why did I let her talk me into this?”</p>
<p>“Who, that Piper girl? She tell you to get our attention like that?” Glory took in Olivia’s blank expression with a laugh. “That’s alright. It all worked out. I’m glad Irma figured it out; I hate all this cloak and dagger bullshit. But if you’re good at it, it’s worth doing. We wouldn’t have survived this long without folks like Deacon, and I guess you, too, if you keep that up.”</p>
<p>Too many questions were buzzing around her head for her to settle on just one, and with this strange woman saying so many words that made no sense, she still felt like she was in a dream. She closed her eyes again, shaking her head and trying to clear the remaining fog even as she nearly fell down the crumbling stairs. “What about Piper? Why did she want me here?”</p>
<p>“I assumed this was your idea. Maybe she didn’t tell you the full story. We’re the Railroad, kid, and we’re the only friends the synths have got in this world.” Wait, Piper was a friend of synths? When had that changed? “The way your friend writes her articles, I was tempted to put her through a wall myself. Everyone hates the Institute but it sure seemed like she hated synths just as much. Not much good to us if she couldn’t tell the difference; just another scared waster stirring up trouble.”</p>
<p>Olivia followed her to the bottom of the stairs and was grateful when she saw the happy glow of electric lights in the distance. They had been stumbling around in the dark with only Glory’s flashlight to guide them and she had only turned that on after Olivia had rolled her ankle on a skeleton, something she hoped was not as disrespectful as it felt. “I thought you said you hated the Institute.”</p>
<p>“Oh, we do. Don’t worry, we’re not going to hand you back to them. You’re with us, now.”</p>
<p>The sense of mistaken identity had been building since Goodneighbor and now it was reaching critical mass. She could see the room up ahead bustling with people, all of them armed but none of them looking this way yet. Maybe she could still get out of this. If this person was Piper’s friend, maybe she could still just walk away.</p>
<p>“Hey, wait a second, I -” She never got the chance to finish.</p>
<p>“Oh my God, Glory picked up a stray.”</p>
<p>The new voice that interrupted her was masculine, suave, and came from someone who was almost certainly blind. A bald man in a white shirt wearing heavy black sunglasses in the dimly lit underground passage emerged from nowhere and shook his head in disbelief.</p>
<p>Glory laughed fondly. “Happened to be in the area. This one was at the Memory Den and started dropping all kinds of hints. I guess she was hoping someone would pick her up, huh, kid?”</p>
<p>The man in sunglasses did not give her a chance to reply. “New tourist? Didn’t know we had any new escapees. Who picked you up, kid?”</p>
<p>How was she supposed to get out of this now? “I didn’t - I’m not -”</p>
<p>“Piper brought her in. She was in Goodneighbor with that vault dweller you’ve been going on about for weeks.” Glory pushed passed him before gesturing over her shoulder as an afterthought. “This is Deacon, kid. Deacon, this is Olivia. Come on in, we’ll show you around. Des will know what to do with you.”</p>
<p>She would have rather stayed in the hallway or turned around and made a run for it, but Deacon continued ushering her inside. “Normally I know everything about everyone in the Commonwealth. You, though? You’re pretty new. That’s impressive. No heat from the Institute and no mess getting out. You must have some crazy good luck on your side. Or maybe it’s all skill, huh? That’s what’d I’d stick with. Sneaking out of the Institute like that, no one would doubt for a second you’ve got what it takes to join the Railroad. You’re not a Courser, are you?”</p>
<p>“I don’t - no, I don’t think so.”</p>
<p>“Perfect! Aced the interview.” Deacon either pretended to look her over or had incredibly sharp eyes behind those shades. “I know they wipe out some stuff when you leave, so don’t sweat that, but I always wondered if it had any other effects on the brain. Don’t worry if you can’t remember everything right away. Des will go nuts over having someone who made it out safe but don’t let her get to you. She’s just under a lot of pressure, being the only woman standing between the Institute and escaped synths like yourself.”</p>
<p>Oh, no. Oh, this was bad. This was very bad. Why? Why had she listened to Piper? Why had she gotten in that chair? And why hadn’t she asked what was happening before now?</p>
<p>Deacon led her into the next room and Olivia found her complaints lodged firmly at the base of her throat, unable to let themselves be heard for fear they would be the last things she ever said. It looked like something out of an old war movie, where plucky French resistance fighters were hiding from the Nazis and planning their next big strike. Alcoves that had once been filled with bones had been cleared out and were now used as shelving. Stone coffins dotted the floor and were now covered in lanterns, candles, food, and all the collected scraps that made up human life. There were even a few picture frames.</p>
<p>Workbenches and microscopes, guns and bullets, scalpels and stimpacks were all laid out in neat little piles, each with their own place in the vast command center, but what grabbed Olivia’s attention were the two women standing at the heart. There was no question who was in charge. Glory, for all her imposing stature as the minigun wielding lunatic that had brought her in, now placed herself in the shadow of another woman who looked every bit the resistance leader. Leaning over a stone dias, maps and candles spread out before her, a woman with fiery hair, a brown vest, gloves, and a ragged scarf around her neck did not even look up to acknowledge the new arrival.</p>
<p>Personally, Olivia found herself happy not to be seen. This woman would see through her in a heartbeat and surely that would be the end of it. She had been to their secret base. She was a liability.</p>
<p>“Got a new tourist, Des,” Glory said as she reached the woman’s side.</p>
<p>Des pushed herself away from the makeshift table slowly and deliberately, carelessly pushing some of that hair from her eyes before settling them like shining hazel laser beams on Olivia. “Is that so?”</p>
<p>Both Deacon and Glory looked toward Olivia as though expecting her to play into this insanity. Her throat caught and all she could manage was. “Sorry. I don’t -”</p>
<p>“It means recruit,” Glory interrupted. “Des here is fond of her codewords.”</p>
<p>“Compartmentalization and subterfuge keep us alive just as much as you blowing up everything in sight,” Des retorted sharply without looking over her shoulder. “Which is why I’m so surprised you’ve decided to bring someone in off the street. What makes you so certain she’s not a spy?”</p>
<p>“Come on, Des, you don’t trust me to be careful?”</p>
<p>The way it was said, and the way Des’s gaze changed from stone-cold leadership to irritated fondness, might have caught Olivia’s attention for longer than a split second if she was not so completely terrified. Instead, she was more focused on how she was going to die under the same church she had just dreamt about. Well, not dreamt, but lived again. And she didn’t even have time to deal with how weird that was because she was too busy worrying about moving on to the next life before she was even used to this one.</p>
<p>“Don’t start with that. I trust you to be as careful when you’re clearing rooms and checking corners. You make your feelings on spycraft clear to me before every mission and twice when you get back.”</p>
<p>Glory grinned and looked to Deacon. “That’s what he’s here for. Maybe you can make a real agent out of this one. Apparently she wasn’t very subtle when getting Irma’s attention.”</p>
<p>Des narrowed her eyes. “Irma? We’re taking recruits from her, now? Glory, did you vet this girl at all or just bring her straight here from the lounger?”</p>
<p>This was not the direction Olivia wanted the conversation to be going, but at least some of the heat might be directed onto Glory when it became obvious this was less a recruitment than a kidnapping. Not that she was willing to speak out of turn just yet. Better to let these two lovely ladies have their conversation and forget there was a vault dweller just hanging out in the corner. Her mole rat brain was currently thinking only about digging holes and burrowing for safety, so she began drifting toward one of the nearby walls in search of soft earth.</p>
<p>“It wasn’t straight from the lounger,” Glory lied. “I asked around. Doc Amari said she was fine, too. Came in with Piper and that other vault dweller that’s been shooting up the Commonwealth looking for her son.”</p>
<p>At least they hadn’t mistaken her for Nora. Des’s demeanor now turned sour. “I’m sorry, I’ll pick apart why we’re taking recruits from Piper Wright after I finish everything else. You were in Goodneighbor, doing something I’m sure was relevant, and you grabbed this stranger instead of the Institute-hating killing machine Deacon has been looking into for months?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, what gives?” Deacon asked from beside Olivia before nudging her on the elbow. “No offense, kid.”</p>
<p>Olivia could only smile awkwardly and turn her attention back to Des and Glory, both of whom were now looking at her. Des spoke first. “We’ll get to you in a second. If you’re genuinely interested in helping the plight of the synths, you have my apologies for the unusual welcome. We just lost a lot of good people and we can’t afford to take chances on strangers. So, before Glory here finishes explaining why she’s decided to ignore all the rules and careful planning we’ve done to keep this operation running, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself? You’re an escaped synth, right?”</p>
<p>Olivia could have told the truth. She could have said she was a vault dweller who got kidnapped out of a lounge chair by someone who was a dead ringer for her old girlfriend, aged up and made into a true Waster. That might not have gone over well, but there was a slim chance that Des would have been willing to believe that someone so stupid, honest, and with such terrible luck had no interest in being anywhere near their operation. There was no way she would go running to the Institute, even if she knew how, after everything she had heard from Piper and Nora.</p>
<p>So, not even knowing what a synth was, she steered into the skid and prayed someone would get her out of this mess. “Yeah. I think so. Sorry, it’s all fuzzy.”</p>
<p>Des deflated a bit but Glory and Deacon both looked ecstatic. “See? I told you she was good,” Glory gloated.</p>
<p>“She’s still a synth, which means she came from the Institute,” Des answered pointedly. “And that means they could be tracking her. Most synths we take in are eager for a new life, but this one was already at the Memory Den and declined to use their services. That’s not normal.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, it means she’s almost as badass as me,” Glory said, puffing out her chest.</p>
<p>Olivia perked up, both from interest and from more than a little fear. “You’re a synth?”</p>
<p>Glory nodded. “You’re not the first one to come looking for a little payback. Glad to have you on board.”</p>
<p>“Can you remember anything about your time in the Institute? Any -”</p>
<p>“Hold up!” The conversation was abruptly interrupted by a man who emerged from inside one of the coffins, startling everyone except Des who let out a long groan. Emerging from what Olivia hoped was an empty box was a man with dark skin, blue jeans with suspenders, no shirt, heavy gloves, and three pairs of goggles strapped to his head with a fourth around his neck.</p>
<p>Where her own words failed her, Deacon’s were ready. “Good thing we’re getting all the weird stuff out of the way early, I guess.”</p>
<p>“She could be lying! I bet she’s not a synth at all!”</p>
<p>As the man hauled himself out of the casket, Olivia felt her blood draining from her face. How had he known? What would they do to her if they found out he was right?</p>
<p>“Why would anyone lie about being a synth?” Des asked, plainly annoyed. “There are easier ways to get yourself killed out there.”</p>
<p>“Maybe she’s in over her head. Maybe the Institute’s got her all brainwashed.” The strange man loomed in front of her, adjusting the largest pair of goggles on his head, which were mounted on a large metal plate and looked like the things eye doctors used to check your vision. They had a name, didn’t they?</p>
<p>It was not a helpful line of thinking and she was glad when Des interrupted it. “I’ll have her watched very closely, Tom, now go back to… whatever it was you were doing.”</p>
<p>“What were you doing in there?” Glory chimed in from her place beside Des.</p>
<p>“Research.”</p>
<p>No one disputed the claim.</p>
<p>But Tom reluctantly took Des’s advice and, in a few seconds, seemed to completely forget that Olivia was even there, leaving Glory to continue her own line of questioning. “So, what can you do? You know how to use a gun?”</p>
<p>“How did you end up working with Piper Wright?” Des asked, rolling over Glory without a second glance and prompting an unhappy pout from the larger woman. “We know she’s no fan of the Institute, but her work has gotten a lot of synths killed and we can’t be sure how many of them were Institute agents and how many were refugees.”</p>
<p>“That’s optimistic,” Glory muttered.</p>
<p>Deacon made noises of grumbling agreement before adding “I keep telling ‘em, she’s fine, but nobody listens to old Deacon.”</p>
<p>“That’s enough,” Des said at last, leveling a finger at Glory. “You have some explaining to do, and we can start with whatever the hell you were doing in Goodneighbor without assignment. If you were in the Third Rail again -”</p>
<p>“I was just checking in on an asset, Des.” Despite the intensity of the glare, Glory seemed completely unfazed. “Mags is a good one. Just wanted to make sure no one was giving her trouble, see if she’d heard anything interesting.”</p>
<p>“Very subtle,” Des growled back. “Let the poor woman live her own life without having to deal with someone like you showing up.”</p>
<p>“Someone like me?”</p>
<p>“Yes, you. Everything about you screams mercenary and any Institute agent with half a brain could pick you out from a mile away with that getup. Did you check the minigun at the door or did you just slap it down on the table for extra privacy?”</p>
<p>Olivia watched as the couple continued to bicker in a way that exposed the true nature of their relationship. That was fine with her. If they were having a bit of a lover’s quarrel, one that looked to be very quickly turning into something that would require a locked door and an old sock, she would happily use that as cover for getting out the front door and running for her life.</p>
<p>Except, she had no idea where she was. And she would be running around in the Wasteland alone, praying that the person who found her was dumb enough to think she had psychic powers or kind enough to feed her and walk her home.</p>
<p>“So, can’t remember much from your great escape, huh?” Deacon said, materializing beside her. “No worries. Why don’t you come sit down over here. We’ll talk over what you do remember and I’ll get you acquainted with our little operation. Des might not have said anything, but we’re hurting for good people right now, so don’t feel like you have to pick up a flamethrower and start cooking up bad guys if that’s not your thing.”</p>
<p>Olivia nodded. “Thanks. That’s a relief.”</p>
<p>“No sweat, kid. And, hey, if no one’s said it yet, welcome to the Railroad.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Piper stared up at the humming neon sign with all the joy of a condemned woman staring at the executioner’s block. Not a lot of use for those in the Wasteland, not when your front porch served as one if you weren’t being careful, but she had read enough books to know that the old world had special places for people to go to die. Here in Goodneighbor, the nearest back alley was good enough, and she had seen more than one on her walk over. There was still time to pay one a visit, see what lucky gangster was waiting to pull the trigger.</p>
<p>“I thought we were in a hurry,” Nora said from beside her.</p>
<p>“Yeah, yeah, I’m hurrying.” Despite that, Piper made no move to descend the stairs and enter her personal hell. “Just give me a second. You can go in, you know, pick out a seat or start asking around.”</p>
<p>“That’s more your thing than mine. Why don’t you tell me what’s so bad about this place? You hardly said a word on the way over.”</p>
<p>She sometimes forgot what she told Nora and what she drunkenly admitted to Olivia. Losing her best friend would crush her in more ways than one, and having to go through all her embarrassing memories with someone new was not something to sniff at. No, that wouldn’t happen. They would find Olivia and they would go running right back home to Diamond City. They had to.</p>
<p>“I might have made some bad decisions here when I was younger,” Piper admitted slowly.</p>
<p>“Any enemies we have to worry about?”</p>
<p>Of course Nora would think about this with her gun. “Not enemies, no.”</p>
<p>Nora sighed. “Okay. I don’t know if you’re embarrassed or what, but how about this? You go in, do what you have to do, and I’ll wait out here?”</p>
<p>Piper whirled. “Wait, why do I still have to go in?”</p>
<p>“I’m not great at getting people to talk, Pipes. I can talk circles around them or make them admit things if I know where to push, but this really isn’t my thing anymore.” Nora hesitated, looking up at the signage before continuing. “I can try, if you really want me to, but this really seems like something you’d do better at.”</p>
<p>Even if it didn’t amount to anything, she did appreciate the thought. Piper fidgeted some more and adjusted her cap before answering. “No. I can do this. Olivia is out there somewhere and we need to get her back. If someone here took her, we need to know.”</p>
<p>“And this bar is the best place to get information?”</p>
<p>From Piper’s experience, it was the best place to get a lot of information pulled out of you, but that was just another way of saying the same thing, right? “Best place in Goodneighbor. There’s a, uh, singer here who should know everything that’s going on in town.”</p>
<p>Nora sighed. “Okay. Good. Let’s get in there.”</p>
<p>“No, I got this,” Piper said a little too quickly. “You said Doctor Amari wanted to see you, right? You should talk to her. Maybe Irma or one of the other customers saw something.”</p>
<p>It wasn’t the most convincing thing she could have said but Nora was in a mood to be convinced. Maybe she didn’t get much practice chasing down missing idiots in her last life. That was all this was; a missing idiot who got lost and was now probably in the hands of a very familiar raider. That was it. Nothing serious, nothing life-threatening, nothing that would end her lucky streak and leave Nat missing the big sister that was actually around for a change.</p>
<p>She hadn’t gotten over that comment and she doubted she ever would. God damnit, why had Olivia let her talk her into this? Why hadn’t she stayed home?</p>
<p>Nora was giving her a strange look but nodded when Piper came back to reality. “Okay. I’ll ask around. Whoever finds something first gets the other one.”</p>
<p>“Okay. Good luck.” Piper took a deep breath and turned back to the Third Rail, leaving Nora to check out the Memory Den on her own.</p>
<p>This was fine. Just a conversation with an old flame. Nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>The Third Rail was just as seedy as she remembered. Most of the tables had been broken and put back together more than once, giving the owners more reason to keep the lights dim everywhere but the small stage in the corner. Just big enough for one person, it still dominated the room, and that was even before the establishment’s lone performer was at the microphone. When Magnolia took the stage, which was every night, the whole house went quiet, and no one cared how bad the alcohol was or how the food was somehow even worse.</p>
<p>Piper sauntered her way in casually, nodding to the man at the door and feeling almost disappointed when she was not turned away. Instead, she was allowed to descend onto the old subway platform from which the bar got its name and find herself a seat at the bar. The Mr Handy hovering behind it was cursed with an obnoxious accent from somewhere overseas and an annoyingly loud volume setting no one had figured out how to change.</p>
<p>But Piper bought herself a drink, slammed it back in one go, and got started on her second before looking for the woman in the red dress. She wasn’t around but Piper was patient. If she was not so confident in Olivia’s luck and Magnolia’s ability to know everything about everyone, she might have wasted her time asking some of the local drunks about the disappearance. It was that faith that kept her seated at the bar and glancing nervously at the stage until, at long last, the woman of the hour appeared.</p>
<p>Dressed in her trademark dress, tight enough to make a girl’s imagination run wild, Magnolia took the stage without fanfare. She didn’t need an announcement. The house fell silent on its own and anyone who did not notice her fast enough got a sharp punch from the person sitting next to them.</p>
<p>Piper watched as she adjusted the mic, smirking beneath a veil of black hair before looking lazily around the room. Her eyes settled on Piper and that knowing smirk grew into a wide grin. It was all Piper could do to hide behind her glass as the woman started to sing.</p>
<p>
  <i><br/>I see you lookin’ round the corner<br/>Come on inside and pull up a chair<br/>No need to feel like a stranger<br/>Cause we’re all a little strange in here<br/></i>
</p>
<p>The heat in her face might have been less intense if the song had not been so clearly directed at her. She privately wondered, squirming beneath the singer’s gaze, if she had made up the song on the spot. It would have fit with her reputation. Whatever the truth was, her eyes did not leave Piper’s for the length of the performance, and Piper did her best to maintain eye contact for as long as possible before going for another drink. She liked to think she did a decent job of it.</p>
<p>When the song finished and the room filled with polite, sincere applause, Piper found herself more drunk than she should have been after five minutes and - oh, okay, that was a few drinks she had gone through, wasn’t it?</p>
<p>She had only a few seconds to try and sober herself up as Magnolia glided across the room, heels clicking on the old subway tiles as she settled herself into the seat beside Piper.</p>
<p>“Well, well, if it isn’t my favorite reporter. I’d been wondering if you’d ever be back to my part of town, and you do know how to keep a girl in suspense. How have you been, sugar?”</p>
<p>Piper, both deeply upset and very grateful Nora was not around to help, cleared her throat awkwardly. “Hey. Good. Sort of. Before now it was good, but - no, not now, now, but before now, like, yesterday, but now it’s good but still, uh, is it hot in here?”</p>
<p>Magnolia chuckled. “It’s been dreadfully cold these last few years. Looks like someone finally managed to turn up the heat. Why don’t you buy a girl a drink, help her cool off after a show?”</p>
<p>“Right! Yes. Hey, Charlie -” The Mr Handy was already mixing something behind the bar and made what amounted to a rude gesture with a lighter that Piper took as confirmation. “Great. He’s already got it.”</p>
<p>“Charlie knows what I like. Not many people do, these days.” Magnolia waited until the drink, which looked fancier than anything else in the room, was slid across the bar before she continued. “I have to admit, I didn’t think I’d see you back here after your last visit. I suppose a woman in your line of work is more accustomed to being in charge, having people answer your questions, not the other way around.”</p>
<p>She managed a nervous laugh as Magnolia began sipping her drink. This was important. Olivia was kidnapped and every second she spent melting in front of this woman was time she was being tortured by raiders or worse. “You could say that. Lately, my job has been more detective than journalist.”</p>
<p>“How exciting. Teaming up with our friend Valentine?”</p>
<p>Piper took the bait. “You saw him in town?”</p>
<p>“Not personally, but word gets around, sugar. He’s got almost as much a reputation around here as you.” The look Magnolia gave her was not one she appreciated and she failed to suppress an uncomfortable wince. “I’m only teasing. I never kiss and tell. Your secrets are safe with me.”</p>
<p>It might have been more comforting if Piper remembered what those secrets actually were. She didn’t have anything really incriminating in her past. Did she? “Thanks.”</p>
<p>“Oh, it was my pleasure.” Magnolia did love playing with her food, and Piper found herself unable to stop chewing her lower lip. “Was that all you came by for? To reminisce, maybe rekindle that old flame? I told you before, my heart belongs to the stage, and even your honeyed words won’t pull me away for long.”</p>
<p>Okay, that was good. Business. She could do business. “Those friends of mine that came into town yesterday? One of them is missing. Someone came into the Memory Den and grabbed her right out from under our noses.”</p>
<p>Magnolia tilted her head curiously, letting her immaculate hair fall in dark curtains around her face and along her lounging arm. “So you are here on business after all. You should consider taking a personal day. You were so tense the last time you were here.”</p>
<p>“The press doesn’t take days off,” she said with far less flair than she normally managed. “Or that’s what I tell myself. She’s a good friend, Mags. I need to find her.”</p>
<p>“What a lucky girl she must be.” Magnolia peered around the room casually in a lazy gesture employed by amateur spies everywhere. The fog in Piper’s mind refused to lift easily but she was still sharp enough to know that something was up. This wasn’t something she wanted anyone else to hear. “A lovely young thing like that comes walking through a place like Goodneighbor and all kinds of folks sit up and pay attention; a bit like you when you first came through town. I do wish you’d stopped in before visiting the Den. There are so many unsavory types who would just love to get their hands on someone like that.”</p>
<p>Piper’s limited attention was split between worrying about who took Olivia and the insinuation that her infiltration into Goodneighbor last time had anything but flawless.</p>
<p>“But you and I made such lovely conversation the last time you were here. Tell me something, sugar.” Magnolia leaned forward, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Do you remember what we talked about the last time you were here?”</p>
<p>No, but she was really starting to wish she did. “Uh. You asked me about what I was doing. A lot.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I did, and you told me all about the little story you were working on. It was very charming; a young journalist out to set the world right and equal with a stroke of her pen. Of course, anyone else might have just seen you as a spoiled Diamond City girl, someone who was trying to make a few caps off their very real suffering.” Magnolia nodded quietly toward the rest of the room. “You’re lucky I’m the one who started asking those questions.”</p>
<p>Lucky was one word for it, but Piper had been doing this for long enough to know she was right. “Yeah. I’m still working on looking before I leap.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know, I think it’s very endearing the way you get in over your head.”</p>
<p>Piper laughed. “Thanks, it’s a gift.”</p>
<p>“I can see that.” Magnolia paused long enough for Piper to take in the weight of her words. Had she done it again? How? Who had she pissed off this time and why had they gone after Olivia? “Now, that noble crusade of yours to bring the ghouls back to Diamond City might not have won you any friends, but it’s hardly the hottest thing off the presses, is it? The Synthetic Truth was a nice title, by the way.”</p>
<p>Piper perked up. Even worried that the room held a dozen Institute spies, apparently praise for her bad puns was the quickest way to her heart. “Oh. Thanks.”</p>
<p>“I read it myself when it made its way out here. McDonough as a synth is something a lot of people here latched on to, including our dear mayor. Not a lot of love for Institute drones out here.” Magnolia paused again to pay attention to her drink while Piper nodded along. “I was surprised when you came here with one.”</p>
<p>All the blood in Piper’s body abruptly turned to ice. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”</p>
<p>“Oh, there’s no need for all that double talk here. Not if you’re whispering it in my ear, that is.”</p>
<p>Even drunk and flustered, Piper was beginning to put the pieces together. “What happened to Olivia? What did you do with her?”</p>
<p>“She’s safe, just like you wanted. Our friends came along and picked her up and that’s that. She’ll have a new life, now.”</p>
<p>“That - she’s not -” Piper forced herself to lower her voice, hissing through her teeth in panic. “She’s not a synth, Mags!”</p>
<p>Magnolia stared at her for a long moment, drink hovering millimeters above the bar but never quite making it down all the way. “She’s not?”</p>
<p>“No! She’s a vault dweller! Why would anyone think she’s a synth?”</p>
<p>“Because she was in the Memory Den talking about the Freedom Trail and hinting very heavily at the services offered there. Irma assumed she knew and - oh, dear.” Magnolia at last put her drink down and looked momentarily horrified. Piper looked around the room in terror but, when she looked back, Magnolia had composed herself. “Why don’t you and I get a room? We have a lot to talk about.”</p>
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<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Witness Testimony</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Piper interrogates a key witness in her missing persons case but Nora loses her patience after hearing new information regarding her son. Olivia does her best to survive in the Railroad while waiting for rescue, which Nat Wright is eager to deliver.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Piper had been in this room before. Whether Mags had intended to or not, she had picked out the very same room where she had brought a drunk and disoriented young journalist and wrung her out like a wet rag. She honestly remembered almost nothing from the night, and what she did remember was something she did not think about in public.</p><p>Maybe that was why she was always getting caught; it had worked out pretty well the first time.</p><p>The door clicked shut behind her and she turned to find a very distracted Magnolia walking toward the windows. “You’re certain she’s not an escaped synth?”</p><p>“I don’t think so.” Admittedly, Piper had never considered the possibility, but she assumed the Institute programmed their synths to do more than fix boilers. “She’s just a vault dweller.”</p><p>But she had Diamond City’s infrastructure in her hands in less than a day, and she always found her way out of tough spots without having to lift a finger. And she had unlimited access to Piper’s home. And her little sister.</p><p>As Piper began to panic, Magnolia took her time drawing the curtains before continuing to pace. “A vault dweller? Irma would have picked up on that. Okay. I think we can still fix this. This friend of yours, she’s no friend of the Institute, right?”</p><p>She was still trying to calm herself down and, when she didn’t answer, Mags rounded on her impatiently. Piper yelped. “Right! Of course. She doesn’t even know who the Institute is, but she’s been around me and Nora enough to see what they’re like.” When Mags gave her another odd look, she elaborated. “They kidnapped Nora’s son.”</p><p>“I see.” Mags continued to eye her with growing curiosity. “And what do you think about synths, my dear journalist? Are they all just Institute pawns to you?”</p><p>One day, she would be in a conversation with Mags that didn’t make her head spin like a top. “What? No!”</p><p>“Really? Because the articles you write can make a girl nervous, and I’m afraid your friend might not have time for us to play up the intrigue.”</p><p>That was disappointing, but as much as Piper loved her old spy holotapes, she could be as direct as a super mutant with a heavy board, and anyone in Diamond City would be more than willing back that up. “Doesn’t matter if someone is born or built, a person is a person.”</p><p>That seemed to get Mags to settle down, but it didn’t elicit the trusting approval that she had so often imagined it would while rehearsing that line in her head. “Alright. If your friend is just like you, sweetheart, I think she’s going to be just fine. Just gotta make sure she’s straight with them; as much as they love playing hide and seek, they like to know everything about the people they’re working with.”</p><p>“Who are you talking about?”</p><p>“The Railroad, sugar. I thought you would have worked that out by now.”</p><p>Mags smirked, settling back into the unflappable persona Piper had so often thought about over the last few years. That was probably a good sign. Her own mind was still running terrified loops but at least they were slowly beginning to settle down. “The Railroad? Olivia is with the Railroad?”</p><p>“Sure seems that way. Irma came by when a mutual friend happened to be stopping by and your friend got a personal escort to the door. She’s a lucky lady.”</p><p>“Yeah, that’s the story so far,” Piper grumbled. “So she’s safe?”</p><p>“She’s with an underground resistance group that smuggles synths out of the Commonwealth right under the nose of the Institute; she’s anything but safe, gorgeous.” Mags took a few steps closer to Piper, sighing as she did. “But she’s with good people working for a good cause. You should be proud of her.”</p><p>The girl did have a habit of being kidnapped by interesting people, but that didn’t mean Piper was proud of her. “I’ve been looking for the Railroad for years and she just… finds them? Just like that?”</p><p>Mags shrugged. “Still as wound up as ever, I see.”</p><p>“I need to get her back! She can’t be a Railroad agent!” The girl would probably get herself killed the first day. Railroad agents went up against the best the Institute had to offer. Olivia could barely manage a radroach and that was if it was feeling friendly.</p><p>“Well, as far as I know, once you’re in, you’re in for life. They’ll find a place for her, don’t you worry.” Mags put her hands on Piper’s shoulders and began adjusting her coat. “To be honest, most of us thought you were working with them already. I’ll bet they would take you in, if you’re so worried about her.”</p><p>Piper watched as Mags continued fiddling with her collar and felt her face start getting very warm. “That’s - I’d like that. I think. I could - wait, if I found the Railroad, even if I didn’t join, I couldn’t write anything about them, could I? I couldn’t even take anonymous quotes or tell stories with the names changed because then I’d be admitting that I know and that I’d spoken with them or at least had sources that know about them. I couldn’t say anything.”</p><p>“That does seem to be a problem for you,” Mags said teasingly. “Here I am putting the moves on you and you’re thinking about your printing press?”</p><p>“You’re putting - my friend is missing. I can’t -”</p><p>“She’s not missing, she’s with our mutual friends.” Mags continued to pluck at her coat until it began to fall down her back and hang around her elbows.</p><p>“But she needs help. She won’t survive with the Railroad, she’ll - hold on. You know the Railroad. You said something earlier; were you with one of their agents yesterday? While we were at the Memory Den, you were having lunch with a Railroad operative.”</p><p>The accusation seemed so impossible that Piper stammered the last few words, though that could have been from Magnolia’s continued attention to her diminishing clothing. “Did I say that?”</p><p>“Are you working with them? Do they operate out of Goodneighbor?” Piper frantically tried to keep the words coming as her coat hit the floor. “Are, uh, are they close, at least?”</p><p>“Close enough.” Mags hummed as her eyes began to drift toward Piper’s belt buckle. “How about this? I tell you everything I know, but only after you pull it out of me. Let’s appreciate the spycraft, the intrigue, the cautious contact and the desperate detective. Seems only fair to me after what I put you through last time, hm?”</p><p>Oh, God, Olivia was going to die and it was all going to be her fault. She was going to die because Piper needed to know where she was and the only woman who knew was currently hell-bent on making this a long conversation.</p><p>Her belt buckle clicked and she did nothing to stop it. Maybe she should unwind a little. Mags seemed calm enough. And Olivia was lucky! She would be fine. The Railroad were good people. Once they figured out she was just some vault dweller, they would probably just walk her home and ask her nicely not to tell anyone where they were. It had happened with raiders, it would happen with the Railroad.</p><p>“Okay. Have it your way.” Piper took a step forward, pushing the dress up with both hands. “But this time, I’m asking the questions.”</p><p>“Oh, I do love a woman in a position of power.”</p><p> </p><p>“What the hell took you so long?” Nora asked as Piper at last returned to the Third Rail, hair mostly straight and clothes mostly in order. “I’ve been here for more than an hour!”</p><p>“Sorry, had to chase down some leads. I got what we needed. Olivia -”</p><p>“Hold on a minute.” Nora peered closer, eyes widening as she saw Piper’s neck. She knew she should have worn her scarf today. “What the fuck is that?”</p><p>“This?” Piper poked at the bit of discolored skin she couldn’t see but could very well imagine. “I’ve had this.”</p><p>“Bullshit.”</p><p>“What? I had someone over a few nights ago! Not that it’s any of your business.”</p><p>Nora stood up from the table and towered over the now-sheepish Piper. “Really? What was her name?”</p><p>“Uh. Myrna.”</p><p>Piper bit her tongue as soon as she said the name. Really? That was the only name she could think of? She couldn’t have thought of something even vaguely common, like Emily or Ashley? She couldn’t have just said she and Olivia were an item and keeping it on the down low?</p><p>“You sure you want to play this out?” Nora asked, eyebrows raised.</p><p>“Fine!” Piper threw her arms up and tried in vain to pull her collar tighter around the spot. “I told you I could handle this on my own and I got everything I needed all by myself. I didn’t need your help or anything. I know where she is and who took her and everything.”</p><p>That was almost completely true, but she didn’t feel like splitting any of those hairs just yet, not when Nora looked ready to knock her out and drag her back to Diamond City by the ankle. It wasn’t her fault Magnolia had been in such an amorous mood, or that she had left such a stellar impression after their last meeting. She couldn’t help it if she really was the most eligible bachelorette in the Commonwealth.</p><p>Nora put her hands up just enough to gesture in surrender, or perhaps in newfound apathy for a cause she knew was lost. “Great.”</p><p>“It’ll take some digging, but I think we can find her -”</p><p>“I thought you just said you knew everything!” Nora snapped, the sudden outburst startling everyone within earshot. Without Magnolia to calm the crowd down, the Third Rail was just like every other rowdy bar in the Commonwealth, but Nora had a way of dominating any room she entered.</p><p>Piper felt herself shrinking back on instinct. “Almost everything! I know who has her and that she’s safe. It’ll just take a little time to find exactly where.”</p><p>“A little time?” Nora asked through gritted teeth.</p><p>“Look, it’s a riddle, okay? But between the two of us, we’ll have it done in no time! Come on, you and me, my brains and your -”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>Piper stopped dead, looking up at the angry woman and feeling both very small and very confused. “No?”</p><p>“Clearly you’re just fine on your own. You know where she is, how to find her, who has her, everything you need to make this work. You even spent an hour blowing off some steam! Good for you! Really, I’m glad you got a chance to relax.”</p><p>Nora stifled whatever comment she had next with a long, angry sigh and began moving toward the stairs. Piper followed, ashamed and angry at both of them. “What’s the matter with you? I told you, I -”</p><p>“My son is out there, Piper, in the Institute, having God-knows-what done to him. I appreciate everything you’ve done to help me find him, but I can’t just sit around and wait until you’re ready to come help me.” Nora reached the base of the stairs and started to climb without waiting for PIpe to catch up. “This is probably for the best, actually. I wouldn’t want you coming with me for this, anyway.”</p><p>“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”</p><p>“Amari helped Nick dig through the memories again. There was something there, something that strange synth gave to Kellogg. That file says his next target was going to be someone who had escaped the Institute. If Kellogg’s dead, he’s still out there, and he’s hiding in the Glowing Sea. He won’t stay there forever, assuming he’s managed to make it this long, and I can’t afford to lose the only lead I’ve had so far.” She stopped halfway up the stairs, catching Piper by surprise as she nearly ran straight into her and had to catch herself on the railing. “This is my son, Piper. I can’t just go off on a wild goose chase and hope he’ll be okay.”</p><p>“This is Olivia!”</p><p>Nora managed to at least look a little torn but that was hardly a comfort when it came to Olivia’s life. “I know. I helped you look for a day. That’s all I can spare. I’ve managed to scrounge up some power armor and get it refitted and running. It’s an old paratrooper model. I was going to show you when we finished here, but I guess that will have to wait, too.”</p><p>Piper lagged behind Nora as she continued to climb. “What makes you think I care about that?”</p><p>“It’s history. I thought that meant something to you. I know it meant a lot to me.”</p><p>“Yeah? So does she! Hey!” Piper slipped through the closing doors and out in front of Nora before she could go any further. “I said I’d help you find your son, but this is Olivia. She’s been nothing but good to you and you’ve put her through hell with your guilt. You know how many times she’s asked me about helping you find you son?”</p><p>The human side of Nora, the one Piper had so carefully tried to bring out, now shrank away in pain, leaving the murderous side so often shown to raiders before they died. “Be sure to thank her when you find her. If you’re still looking when I get back, I’ll help then, but I won’t wait on this. I’m sorry, Piper, I really am. This is my family we’re talking about. I thought you’d understand.”</p><p>Piper could not have stopped her if she tried. She had taken down super mutants before but Nora was something else. She just put her hand on Piper’s shoulder and moved her aside like she was nothing, walking toward Goodneighbor’s main gate.</p><p>“Family? What do you think she is to me? What about Nat? Huh?! Fine! Get out of here! I’ll find her on my own,” Piper shouted after her, the tone growing more and more petulant as the distance between them grew.</p><p>Nora did not stop. “Don’t work yourself too hard. Sex can really take it out of you.”</p><p>No one stopped Nora as she left and Piper was soon standing alone in the courtyard, the glowing sign of the Third Rail humming above her. She pulled her coat tighter, adjusting her clothes against a cold that came from something other than the wind and setting sun. She might have been less angry if it hadn’t been true. Instead of running after Olivia in the heroic dash she deserved, she had spent more than an hour tangled up with Magnolia as though nothing was wrong. She had let herself get distracted.</p><p>Piper waited a long time before leaving town and entering the free fire zone that was the Commonwealth. The shadows were already lengthening and Nora had long since disappeared into them, leaving her with a riddle and a whole lot of bad guys between her and her missing friend.</p><p>“Follow the Freedom Trail,” she muttered, setting her boots on the road that would take her back to Diamond City and where Mags had claimed that trail began. “Hang in there, Blue. I’m coming.”</p><p> </p><p>Nat’s backpack bulged with cram, chocolate bars, Nuka, and a few stimpacks for emergencies. She had her bedroll in case it took longer than one day, a flashlight for going into dark places, a comic book so she could stay up and keep watch, and Piper’s old twenty-two rifle that she had learned to shoot with. It was just short enough to be strapped to her backpack and not drag on the ground. She would need to practice getting it quickly if she had to shoot any bugs or raiders.</p><p>She also had a wriggling mass of blankets that was trying very hard to get out of her arms and onto the ground and was drawing a lot of attention from the nearby guards. She had to run out the gate and around the corner before anyone could stop her, which a few of them did try to do. One of them, Danny, jumped over his desk and came running after her. He almost caught up with her in the street outside but she managed to lose him under a fence with a big hole at the bottom.</p><p>With his shouting getting further away, Nat finally dumped the angry pile of blankets on the ground and watched as Big Green came hissing and snapping out of them.</p><p>“What? I had to get you out somehow!” Nat folded her arms as the big radroach puffed itself up and the green lines across its back glowed angrily. It would have been terrifying if it had been any other bug.</p><p>Hiding in her pack were also several old issues of the Publick, packed specially for Big Green. He eyed the one in her hand suspiciously before snatching it away, tugging a little harder than he normally did. That was fair; she had kidnapped him.</p><p>“Okay. We have to find Liv. Someone took her from Goodneighbor and no one else is looking for her. Piper says she will but that other vault dweller is just going to drag her off somewhere else. It’s up to us.”</p><p>She always believed in Piper to do the right thing, but lately Nora had been taking advantage of that and dragging her all over the Commonwealth just to find her son. Well, not just to find her son, of course Nat wanted the other vault dweller to find her son, but Piper was always trying to help everyone. They didn’t need to go everywhere together. The last time she had stayed home with Olivia, they had ended up going to the races and that had been a great story. That was the sort of thing she should have been doing, but the other vault dweller wasn’t letting her.</p><p>And that other vault dweller didn’t like Liv anyway. She couldn’t trust her to actually look for Liv for longer than a day, she was sure of it. Piper was just doing what she always did. It wasn’t her fault she was getting taken advantage of.</p><p>Big Green scuttled angrily in the alleyway and buzzed its wings but didn’t leave. It looked up at Nat and made a few more buzzing noises that she took for agreement and flitted up to the wall across from her.</p><p>Okay. Nat straightened up and moved to the end of the alley, carefully looking around for deathclaws and feral ghouls and slavers. She had spent her whole life listening to Piper’s stories. She could survive out here, and with Big Green, she knew she could handle whatever they ran into. They would get to Goodneighbor, find Liv, and be home by dinner.</p><p> </p><p>Railroad headquarters seemed to exist in another world altogether. In the cramped chambers filled with disinterred bodies and repurposed coffins, those who lived in fear of the Institute did so as happily as they could. New additions, which apparently included Olivia, were ribbed constantly by older members, of which Glory seemed to be the most prominent. They were treated to false tests of loyalty, real tests of marksmanship, and were nearly forced to drink whatever foul-smelling, probably fatal concoction Tom had thrown together to “kill all the nanobots in their bloodstream.”</p><p>She did not ask how it worked.</p><p>What she did ask, when she found a minute alone with Glory, was harder to answer. “So, what happens now?”</p><p>“Now, kid, you’re fighting with the good guys,” Glory said, lounging on a metal chair while Olivia perched on a pile of bricks next to her. “We’ll throw you at some synths and see how you do in a fight. If you come out alive, you might get to eat.”</p><p>Olivia was pretty sure she was joking, but there was always the chance that she had just ended up with the craziest raider gang in the Commonwealth. “Do I at least get a gun?”</p><p>“You don’t have one? God, how’d you survive long enough to get to Goodneighbor?”</p><p>Oh, hey, she knew that one. “Luck.”</p><p>Glory smirked. “You’ll need lots of that around here. Don’t worry kid, we’ll get you all sorted out. Like Deacon said, we’re in a bad place right now, and we need all types. You don’t have to be a minigun wielding badass like yours truly. You can help Carrington stitch people up, or you can run experiments for Tom - don’t volunteer for that if you can help it, or you could help PAM with whatever PAM is doing. Most likely, Des will make you a tourist. It’s the easiest way you can help and we always need more.”</p><p>Something told her that the reason they always needed more was a dangerously high turnover rate. As long as it kept her fed and gave her a chance to get away tomorrow, she would make do.  “What does that mean?”</p><p>“Being a tourist? It’s a lot of cloak and dagger shit. Go to this building, watch this corner, put this package in the third mailbox down the street; more trouble than it's worth.” The look that followed, well-recognized by domestic women everywhere, was directed toward Des to see if her comments to rile her up. From what Olivia could tell, the two were in a committed relationship, and that commitment centered around driving the other one as crazy as possible.</p><p>“So I wouldn’t have to shoot anyone?” she asked, latching on to the important part of the conversation.</p><p>Glory made a face. “It’s a harsh world out there, kid. I know you’ve been in the Institute your whole life, but you have got put that behind you quick. Up here, especially in this outfit, it’s kill or be killed. Unless you’re good at turning invisible like our friend Deacon. Even he’s had to defend himself a few times up there when Wasters get too friendly. Sometimes you run into raiders. It’s just the way of things.”</p><p>She nodded sagely at that. If her luck held, there was one in particular she would run into before something bigger and meaner decided to stomp her to death. The woman she hoped would find her was actually dressed in a red trench coat and wore an a stupid hat everywhere she went, but that was mostly because it would give Olivia more time to yell at her. This was all her fault and she would know it the next time she saw her.</p><p>Or five minutes after she died. She wasn’t leaving this world until Piper had gotten an earful every night for the rest of her life about how stupid an idea this had been from the beginning, and if she had to haunt Publick Ocurrences to make that happen, that’s what she would do.</p><p>Not Nat, though. Nat would be tucked in by ghostly hands every night and every boyfriend of hers would know the fear of God if they ever made her cry. She was going to miss that little hellraiser when she died.</p><p>It only now occurred to her that being a tourist sounded a lot like being a delivery girl. She would die how she lived. The world had a truly miserable sense of humor.</p><p>“If you want to learn how to shoot, I’m always up for a lesson or two,” Glory continued. “But you gotta put in the work, make every shot count. We’re always short on ammo around here. You’d think someone would have figured out how to make more. I keep telling Tom to get on it but he says that’s grunt work for him. Grunt work. He’ll see grunt work when we’re throwing rocks at the Institute. Probably won’t expect that, will they?”</p><p>Olivia looked toward the shooting range and pondered her future. “I might take you up on that.”</p><p>She realized that might mean having to use a gun at some point, but the world seemed to be pushing her in that direction anyway, so she might as well be ready for it. Glory smiled. “Alright. Stay here, let me find you something.”</p><p>Wandering off toward the shooting range, Glory left Olivia alone with her thoughts. No one had picked her brain too closely over being an escaped synth, which was a mercy, but this was something she had never talked much about with Piper. She had sort of assumed all synths were robotic murder machines built by the Institute and their false humanity was just that. But here was a whole group of people trying to free them and give them a life.</p><p>She eventually worked up the courage to wander over to the main table where Des was brooding over a large map. Something told her the big black crosses and struck-through names were somehow related to the desperate need for new recruits.</p><p>Des did not look up as she spoke. “Did you need something, Olivia?”</p><p>“I just had some questions, if you don’t mind.” She waited until Des nodded, at least looking up from the table to acknowledge her presence. Up close, she looked like a rugged veteran of a dozen battles, each of which had worn her down a little more until her exhaustion had all but overcome her.</p><p>“Go ahead. I’m sure this is a lot to take in.”</p><p>And yet she was still smiling. Olivia found herself smiling, too, which was something that should have worried her much more than it did. “It’s kind of an embarrassing one. I’m sorry if it sounds weird, but I don’t… I don’t really know what I am. Does that make sense?”</p><p>Des’s eyes softened. “It does. Not in a way I could understand, not firsthand, but it’s something we’ve heard before. You’ve been told your whole life you’re nothing but a machine, something to be reprogrammed and used for your purpose, discarded at the end of the day. Being reduced to that is hard on a lot of you, and you have my sympathies.”</p><p>The woman stood up, then, coming around the side of the little stone table and putting her hand on Olivia’s shoulder. Maybe this was how it was supposed to be. She could be a Railroad agent. She could help this person fight against the Institute.</p><p>It should have scared her how forceful this woman’s personality was, but all it did was fire her up. “You’re a person. That’s all that matters, and everyone here will stand beside you as a member of our family.”</p><p>“But I can’t remember anything about the Institute.”</p><p>“They’re a careful bunch, if nothing else,” Des said, smiling ruefully. “We’re still hoping for a big break one of these days; just because you didn’t solve all our problems doesn’t mean we aren’t glad you’re here.”</p><p>Olivia felt herself smiling wider than she should have been. She wasn’t even a synth but being told she was human and part of a family was apparently something she had been missing in her life. “Thanks. I’ll do what I can, I promise. I’m good at, uh, well, delivering things, I guess.”</p><p>Her face was turning red even before Des started laughing. “Nothing left in there about the Institute but they can’t get rid of muscle memory, can they? Well, that’s something we always have a need for around here. God knows Glory won’t do it, even though she spends more time above ground than anyone here. If you’re going to take pointers from her, keep in mind that her job is extremely dangerous but extremely simple at the same time. We mess up just once, let the wrong person in that door for just one second, and it’s all over. It happened a few months back and we lost damn-near everyone.”</p><p>The tone had turned somber toward the end. The brilliant leader that cared for her people; Olivia had to get out of here before she did something stupid like join up. Oh. Right. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>“Every day out here is life and death for us. We all know the risks, but it’s hit some of us harder than others. There wasn’t even time to mourn them, just on to the next disaster. What you’re looking at is one of our last safehouses in the Commonwealth.” Des smirked half-heartedly. “So that means lots of opportunities for advancement. Plenty of packages to deliver, too. In fact, if you’re ready for assignment, I could use someone to go run an errand for me.”</p><p>Run an errand? Was she picking up their groceries? Actually, that would be fine with her, so long as no one shot at her while she was standing in the checkout line. “Okay. What can I do?”</p><p>“We need someone to check in on our other safehouses. Supposedly, one of them is trying to reestablish contact, but we need to make sure it’s not a trap. Glory will be handling the heavy lifting, but we need you to go out ahead of her, leave this holotape at our dead drop, and retrieve one of theirs.”</p><p>Des produced what looked like a ripped-open package with a shipping label and handed it to her. Disguising their drops as garbage seemed smart. “I think I can do that.”</p><p>“Be careful out there. I know you’re eager to help, but heroes don’t live long in this line of work. Don’t do anything reckless. The Institute has eyes everywhere. You won’t get by on being unseen, but you can get by on blending in. Act like a scavenger or a trader. Find a caravan to tag along with.”</p><p>That was a lot to take in. Olivia managed to keep nodding, imagining scenarios in her head where she somehow managed to pull this off and look like a hero doing it.</p><p>She tried to put the package in her coat but found the inner pockets way too small. “We can get you a bag or something,” Des said with a hint of amusement.</p><p>“That would be great. Diamond City hasn’t had bags in months.”</p><p>Des raised an eyebrow. “Months? Huh. If you could keep your cover that long, maybe you’ll be able to pull this off. Unless Miss Wright found you on the street and hid you under the floorboards for that long.”</p><p>“No, that’s not - it’s a long story. But I have a job there. And a house.” The truth, when presented as a more impressive lie, actually seemed to impress Des. “I thought I was just going to stay there and have a normal life.”</p><p>Des sighed, tilting her head to one side and smiling almost fondly. “Normal is hard to come by for people like you. Thank you for giving that up for us. If it helps, know that giving up your own comfort will help guarantee a new life for hundreds like you who just want the same thing.”</p><p>She certainly had Olivia dialed in, whether she knew it or not. As much as she wanted to return to Diamond City, she was starting to want to do this, to make a difference and help people.</p><p>Whether or not that would last beyond the first time someone shot at her remained to be seen.</p><p>“One more thing before you go,” Des said, looking off toward the shooting range where Glory had finally found something suitable and was coming back to join the conversation. “We’ve had reports of some strange activity in this part of the city. Seems like someone has been pulling raider gangs together and taking territory fast.”</p><p>She hardly needed to ask, but she did all the same. “Does she have a name?”</p><p>“She calls herself Nightshade.” Des gave her a questioning look. “You know her?”</p><p>“Piper does.” That was also the truth. She didn’t feel like admitting more, not without getting drunk again. “They ran into each other when she did her story about Easy City Downs.”</p><p>Glory arrived just in time to snort with laughter. “I read about that! I saw the explosions across town. We should really recruit her. She’d -”</p><p>“I have enough trouble keeping one trigger-happy walking bomb in check,” Des snapped. “The last thing I need is someone who blows things up and then writes about it in the paper.”</p><p>Olivia was pretty sure she had a point, but Glory was not willing to concede it. “That’s not what you were saying a month ago.”</p><p>Des rolled her eyes. “I’m not going over this again. Our new friend here has a place in Diamond City, so if she is willing to return home, maybe we can have that conversation again in the future. If you’re embedded with Piper, maybe you can finally get to the bottom of this whole synthetic mayor business. In the meantime, Heavy, do you have something useful for our newest operative or are you here to make my life more difficult?”</p><p>Glory turned to Olivia, handing her a small pistol with a long barrel. “Here. Silent but deadly. Happy, boss?”</p><p>“No. Now I’m worried someone stuck a magnet to your head and you’ve lost your mind.”</p><p>She gave Olivia an almost apologetic look, gauging her reaction to what was probably an off-color joke about synths. Glory thought it was hilarious and did not even look at her, but she did appreciate the gesture, even if she wasn’t really a synth. The two were obviously not used to having someone eavesdrop on their private conversations and were desperate for a little time alone.</p><p>Olivia turned the pistol over in her hands, which was her first mistake. Glory’s hand was immediately there pointing the barrel down. “Okay, easy there, cowboy. No pointing it at people you like. That’s the first rule. Damn, they really don’t teach you anything, do they? Let’s get you over to the range so you don’t shoot my girlfriend.”</p><p>“You didn’t even ask if I wanted it,” Des complained as Olivia was led away.</p><p>Glory scoffed. “If anyone’s going to put you out of your misery, it’s going to be me. I cause most of it anyway.”</p><p>What followed was a brief but thorough instruction on how to use the weapon. Glory said it wouldn’t kick much but Olivia nearly dropped it after the first shot. More practice made it a little easier but she still missed the target more often than not. Reloading was also way harder than it was in video games, even if Glory made it look so effortless. She tried her best to follow along but she felt like she was trying to write with her feet. She decided Piper would need to show her how to use it once they got back to the city.</p><p>Assuming she did get back. Did she want to go back? She missed Piper and Nat and wanted to go back to her old life, but now that she was here, she wasn’t sure she could just ignore what was happening in the world anymore. There were people out there that needed help.</p><p>And now Nightshade was trying to do, what, run the Commonwealth? The way she kept running into her, she would find her the moment she tried to drop off this holotape. Maybe she could teach her how to shoot, assuming she didn’t spend the whole next visit tied to a radiator.</p><p>Wherever Piper was, she hoped she was at least being safe. She already had enough problems with the Institute. She didn’t need to add Nightshade to her list of regulars.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. The Wright Detectives</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Piper follows the Freedom Trail and makes an unsettling discovery. Across town, Nat tries to survive the dangers of the Commonwealth with Big Green.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The placid water of Boston Commons erupted in a fountain of green and brown filth. With all the vibrant color of a clogged toilet, the idea of letting that water anywhere near her was almost as terrifying as the leviathan now emerging from its depths. Piper would have gasped or screamed but opening her mouth invited more of those fetid chunks inside, and she had no desire to see what horrible diseases or parasites came from that experience.</p><p>Instead, she closed her mouth and  ran.</p><p>Behind her, the great monster of Boston Commons roared to the sky, and she was too busy holding her arms over her head to look back. If only she had brought a camera. A picture of this thing would set her up for life.</p><p>The earth-shaking footsteps of something terrifying beyond words came crashing through the water behind her, water she was certain was at least twenty feet deep. Animal instinct forced her to turn without thinking of the spraying filth and see at last what exactly was going to end her life.</p><p>She was not prepared to see a swan boat. The placid thing, innocent and white and splattered with filthy green, bobbed just above the water as the creature carrying it took a bad step. Beneath it, rising from the waves once again as it regained its footing, was the biggest super mutant she had ever seen. Still towering ten feet over her while still immersed in the lake, the creature probably could have overtaken her in two strides if it hadn’t been restrained by its home waters.</p><p>A glob of thick, green scum splashing against her face convinced her to turn away and keep running, retching loudly as she did.</p><p>Surrounding Boston Commons were some of the least savory places in the Commonwealth, including the notorious raider bar the Combat Zone, but Piper would have taken a hundred angry raiders over this thing. She pounded down the battered path, frantically searching for the thin, red line that would lead her to Olivia and the Railroad. That was all she had to go on, after all; a vague riddle and an ancient path cut through the streets of the Commons.</p><p>She hopped an iron fence bent double by a fallen light pole, the cause of which was probably pulling itself free of the pond even now, and scrambled on all fours behind a decrepit statue. Her final words, had anyone been there to record them, would have been a string of unkind expletives directed at the creature, the fence, and Olivia.</p><p>The things she did for her friends. While frantically searching for somewhere to hide, her keen double-detective mind noticed a clue hiding right at her feet. Someone had spray painted something on the old seal at her feet. An old memorial plaque commemorating this Freedom Trail of old America had been vandalized with a letter and a number.</p><p>There was not time to puzzle over the meaning, just enough to commit it to memory and bolt before the ground beside her exploded beneath the aforementioned stone statue, grabbed by the legs and ripped free before being swung overhand at her scampering form.</p><p>Bits of stone and masonry drew blood and made her run faster as the behemoth screamed “SWAN!”</p><p>Piper replied in true journalistic fashion. “Is that your name, big guy?! I need it for when I quote you!”</p><p>Her quips were answered by a substantial chunk of the statue’s base which came screaming toward her, the sound deep and all-consuming even before it smashed into a nearby bus and sent it flying into the nearby buildings. The apartment complex groaned and heaved beneath the insult and, unable to turn around, Piper forced herself to run faster.</p><p>Too slow. The road was blocked by falling rubble and Piper, scrambling again to avoid falling rocks, began running around the Commons, along the red trail she had stupidly tried to follow alone. Another seal sat in front of one of the nearby buildings and Piper scurried over, sure she would need these clues for something at the end. Another letter and number. She could remember that.</p><p>Assuming her brains were not splattered all over the ground. The path turned back on itself, leading through the street that was now choked with rubble. Worse, standing between her and safety, was the behemoth, still holding the statue and moving toward her with fatidic certainty.</p><p>All Piper had was her sidearm, and she did not fancy her chances against this thing, so she kept running. Taking another lumbering stride forward, the behemoth swung the statue like a bat and tried to knock Piper back to Diamond City. She just managed to hit the ground in time for the swing to pass over her, the force of it knocking her even more off balance as it smashed into a nearby car that went careening over the pool and into another nearby building before exploding.</p><p>Rolling onto the sidewalk, she managed to find her feet and go tearing down the road before the creature could take another swing, hidden as she was by the rising dust and flying cars. She managed to get around its legs and toward the street before it howled again, this time hoisting a decrepit car and launching it at the fleeing woman.</p><p>The vehicle smashed into the ground just behind PIper but kept bouncing end over end until it hit another building right next to the street she needed to take. Roofing tiles clattered against the ground around her, soon followed by drain pipes, window panes, and all the bricks and mortar in the world. She was lucky enough to put her arms over her head in time to catch a falling tile on them instead of her skull. She still screamed and swore as she ran, certain she had just broken something.</p><p>She reached the next street over and threw herself into an alley just in time to see another massive chunk of stone howl down the street, crashing into a dozen things down the street after it passed from sight like a massive bowling ball. From further up the road, exploding cars and more groaning buildings told her what would have happened if she hadn’t found this hidden spot.</p><p>There, hiding behind a dumpster and clenching her teeth in agony, Piper listened to the enraged screams of the monster as it searched for her. She tended to her arm with one of her few stimpacks, feeling the bone set in a way best described as unpleasant and the flesh knit back together remarkably quickly. She could have kissed whoever invented them.</p><p>At length, after the thundering steps had faded and no more rocks were being hurled at her, she crept to the end of the alley once again. On the street outside was the red trail she had been following, with more seals and painted clues.</p><p>She allowed herself a sigh of relief. “Okay, one mystery solved, one behemoth outsmarted, and one trail left to follow. Now, just need to - oh, what now?”</p><p>Drawn by the noise, a pair of feral ghouls now began to wander out from an old graveyard, dragging themselves over the collapsed iron fence to plop into the street ahead. Now Piper did draw her pistol, confident she could handle a few ferals on her own. She didn’t need Nora to protect her. She had been doing this for years before she came along.</p><p>She had hardly aimed her first shot when she noticed more movement coming from under the nearby cars. A lot of movement. The same graveyard began to spawn figures two by two, each one making a similar climb and falling into the street as though they had rehearsed this every night since they’d been buried. From a tour bus outside the building, ghouls began to file off or climb free of the windows, joining those on the street until it was jammed sidewalk to sidewalk with shambling figures hungry for a bit of fresh human.</p><p>With that monster behind her and Olivia counting on her, there was no going back, so she went through. She sprinted toward them, firing on the move and dropping the two between her and the first car with as many shots before hopping up onto the roof and sprinting into the mess. The rest of the ghouls, startled by the noise, tried to chase her, smashing into the sides of the cars she used as stepping stones over a river of grasping hands and screaming faces. It was like something out of a comic book, the brave hero leaping over the River Styx to rescue the soul of her love. She thought she had read that in one of the old Grognak issues, anyway.</p><p>Even if Olivia was not exactly her love, she was Nat’s babysitter and her favorite drinking buddy, so the two amounted to almost the same thing at the moment.</p><p>One superhuman leap carried her to the front of the tour bus, her hands grasping at the top as her knee smashed painfully through the battered windshield. More cursing and vows of vengeance against public transportation followed, but she finally managed to hoist herself to the roof, out of reach of those grabbing hands. Her knee wasn’t too bad, just a little bloody and complaining with every move, but she had been through worse falling down the stairs at home.</p><p>A few deep breaths later and she was off, throwing herself off the back of the bus with a heroic leap and perfect roll that carried her into a sprint down the road, away from the tenacious pack of ferals still determined to get their meal.</p><p>She did not miss a single seal, scampering over rubble and down streets littered with angry ghouls. Part of her reveled in it. She was finally here, seeking out the Railroad, walking the Freedom Trail, here at last to take a stand against the Institute.</p><p>The feeling faded as the streets turned familiar. She walked over another collapsed building, picking the next numbers and letters and already beginning to realize what was being spelled out when she saw a familiar glowing sign.</p><p>Turning the next corner, she found herself standing not a hundred feet from Goodneighbor’s main gate, where she had set out so many hours before. All that walking, to Diamond City, up streets filled with raiders, to Boston Commons and everything that had happened since, had all been to realize the Railroad’s password was railroad.</p><p>Piper sat down on the curb, pulled out a cigarette, and had a long smoke. She could just go inside, have another drink, maybe a bath. It wasn’t part of their old spy movie script but she could go have another drink with Mags, pick this whole thing up tomorrow first thing in the morning.</p><p>After a few minutes, she flicked the burning butt into the street and groaned her way to her feet. Time to go. There was a damsel in distress and a hidden society to uncover. For the Commonwealth’s most righteous truth seeker, love would have to wait.</p><p>But that damsel had better be grateful when she came busting through the door.</p><p> </p><p>Big Green buzzed his way over to the next alley and Nat followed, creeping through the shadows without making a sound. This was going great so far. No raiders and just a whole bunch of dead ghouls. The road to Goodneighbor was supposed to be dangerous but this had been so easy.</p><p>There hadn’t even been any scary noises. When she reached the corner where Big Green had landed, she looked out onto another broken street filled with cars, dead ghouls, and broken buildings.</p><p>“Coast is clear,” she whispered to the radroach.</p><p>She hesitated before going out into the street, however. They had been doing this for hours. She had thought Goodneighbor would be closer. She was pretty sure it was this way. It was to the west right? Or was it the east?</p><p>Big Green scuttled down to her feet and looked up expectantly. Nat agreed. It was time for lunch.</p><p>The two sat down against the empty building and she shared out her meal. For the bug, one roll of the Publick, freshly printed, and for her, one can of Cram. Gross, but she had to make sacrifices to find Olivia. She hadn’t had time to pack anything better and she was saving her good stuff for when the two of them had to go back to Diamond City.</p><p>No one bothered them as they ate, but Big Green finished his meal first and zipped out into the street, buzzing in a way she hadn’t heard before. Did that mean danger?</p><p> </p><p>Putting the last of her food away, she crept to the edge of the alley and peered out, gasping quietly as she saw something moving at the end of the street. Was it a feral? No, it looked human and it was carrying a gun. Then another came up beside it, standing and looking at one of the other streets. A few more walked by, and she could see enough from here to know they were bad news.</p><p>Raiders.</p><p>Piper had always said they were dangerous but dumb. It looked like they were going into the city, away from her. She could just let them pass by.</p><p>She watched for a long time as more and more of them went down the street. There were dozens of them. Piper said they didn’t come in big groups, that they always fought with each other and that made them easy to mess with. This looked like a lot. She hadn’t been counting, but she had been hiding here for a long time.</p><p>Big Green chirped and suddenly took off, flying into a nearby building and surprising Nat. “Hey!” she hissed after him. “Come back here!”</p><p>The bug didn’t listen, and Nat was left watching as a few more raiders gathered in the intersection. The more she watched, though, the more she wanted to follow him. Olivia had told her about getting kidnapped by raiders. If someone wanted to take her away again, it made sense for it to be someone who knew her. Maybe it wasn’t the Institute after all. Or maybe the raiders were working with someone from the Institute!</p><p>She stood up, creeping her way around the car and passed the woman sitting behind her.</p><p>Wait.</p><p>“You’re a little young to be out here alone, aren’t you?”</p><p>Nat froze. She hadn’t even had time to get her rifle out and she was already caught. And Big Green was gone! He hadn’t even tried to help.</p><p>The woman, sitting cross-legged on the ground, was wearing a black leather coat and jeans with white shoes and a pistol holstered on her hip. A massive sniper rifle was set against the ground and leaned up over her shoulder, barrel poking up above her head, which now tilted curiously toward her.</p><p>Okay. Piper had been in a lot of spots like this before. She had always talked her way out. She just had to be smart. “I’m not alone.”</p><p>The woman looked around, smiling. “I don’t see anyone else here. Was that your pet roach that just flew off? Is he going to come back and bite me?”</p><p>“You wouldn’t be the first,” Nat said, trying to sound less afraid than she was. It was probably true, too. Big Green was a big bug. He had to have eaten some big stuff before Olivia found him.</p><p>“I’m sure. Well, you be sure to tell him I’m not going to do anything bad to you, okay? It’s not everyday you see a little girl with a radroach following her around, so I got curious. I’ve been walking all day with nothing to do.”</p><p>The woman looked down toward where the other raiders were walking and back to Nat meaningfully. Again, she tried to sound tough. “You should just keep walking, then, lady. I’ve got somewhere important to be. People are waiting for me.”</p><p>“I’m sure you do,” she said, laughing and making Nat feel annoyingly small. “Please, don’t let me interrupt. I’m not here to get in your way. Why don’t you tell me where you’re going? Maybe I can help you get there, hm?”</p><p>Nat paused for just a moment too long before answering. “I don’t need any help.”</p><p>“You didn’t notice me coming up behind you,” the woman pointed out annoyingly. “Which isn’t your fault; not a lot of people notice me. They usually end up dead for it. But don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. I don’t do kids.”</p><p>Someone down the road was looking up at the two of them, now. Nat fidgeted and looked off toward where Big Green had disappeared. “I’m just going to Goodneighbor.”</p><p>“Goodneighbor? What’s a kid doing going there alone?”</p><p>“I’m going to see family.”</p><p>The woman caught the eye of whoever was down the street and sighed, running one hand over her hair which was tied back in a short ponytail. “I’m sure you are. Well, you’ve been a lovely distraction, but it seems my day of walking alone must continue. It was lovely meeting you. Run along, now.”</p><p>Somewhere down the road, another woman was holding a strange-looking copper rifle and calling out to the other woman. “Chaser! Are you going to introduce your new friend to the rest of us?”</p><p>Nat was already scuttling toward the next alleyway, away from the woman who hardly glanced at her, waving her further down the road as she called back “She’s just a kid, boss!”</p><p>“If you have enough time to be picking up strays, perhaps I should be running you harder. We do have a schedule to keep, you know, and I hate when guests arrive late to a party.” The raider’s voice bounced strangely down the alleyways as Nat ran but she caught the last few words very clearly. “You should bring her along! It’s dangerous out there for a girl on her own.”</p><p>Nat did not stop running for what felt like hours. She ran until her legs felt like they would give out and she ducked into a building to hide. Chaser did not come after her. From where she was hiding, she could hear nothing except her own ragged breathing and the blood pounding in her ears.</p><p>Big Green eventually reappeared beside her, buzzing concernedly at her legs before scuttling to the alley to keep watch.</p><p>“Some help you were,” she eventually managed when she could do more than just lie on her back.</p><p>From the hole in the wall where she had crawled through, she heard more buzzing and an almost indignant clicking. She looked up to see Big Green hanging sideways on the alley wall, munching on what looked like an old phone book.</p><p>“You just think with your stomach, don’t you?” Big Green continued to munch, chirping as he did. “Should have just left you at home.”</p><p>After another long wait, she managed to pull herself up and toward the alley entrance. The sun was pretty high in the sky, but she wasn’t sure exactly what time it was or which way she had run to get away from the raiders. There were no signs around, just faint gunfire from down one of the streets. Was that north or south?</p><p>She looked down at the unhelpful bug beside her. “Okay, next time someone comes up behind us, how about you warn me instead of flying off? Now we’re lost. Maybe… let’s go to that building and see if there’s a sign or something.”</p><p>The pair scuttled into the next building and began making their way up to the top floor. When they reached the top, Big Green flitted up onto a broken bit of the roof, where the slanted wood broke away and they could see the rest of the Commonwealth. The surrounding rooftops were all flat things with metal boxes and big holes that made her wonder what had been standing there when it fell in.</p><p>She could see Diamond City in the distance and could not resist pointing excitedly. “There it is!”</p><p>Big Green buzzed, but it was not in agreement. From the next rooftop over, she heard something big and angry cry out in confusion before lumbering toward her building with footsteps much too loud to be human.</p><p>Nat spun to see a big, green face staring at her through a hole in the siding. Super mutants. She hadn’t even - she hadn’t thought they were out here. It was looking right at her, grinning horribly, mouth watering and eyes wide as it started to pull itself through a gap in the boards.</p><p>Big Green took flight, launching himself at the monster’s face and making it scream in rage. It staggered back, waving its arms wildly. “Radroach! Get away, food! I will eat you!”</p><p>“Run!” She bolted for the stairs, hoping Big Green would follow. The buzzing was soon followed by gunfire that made her gasp and run faster. This had been a terrible idea. Why had she done this? She never should have left home by herself.</p><p>She made it to the street before skidding to a stop in front of three more mutants, all just standing there watching the rooftop.</p><p>One looked down to see her. “Tiny human? Where you come from?”</p><p>Nat stared at it, unable to speak. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. From above her, she heard squeals from Big Green and horrible laughing from the super mutants on the roof.</p><p>The one looking at her came closer, its massive hand reaching out to grab her. She couldn’t even find the air in her lungs to scream. She just stared in horror as it brought its massive hand toward her and - and poked her. Hard.</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>Nat nearly fell over from the force of the poke. “What?”</p><p>“You are small for human. Why you out here?” Just when she had gotten her feet again, the thing came forward and poked her in the other shoulder.</p><p>The laughter from the rooftop turned to a sharp yell that ended with a horrible, wet splat. From the rooftop she heard a deep mutant voice laughing. “You killed by radroach! Pathetic! Killed by food!”</p><p>She couldn’t look up beyond the massive green head looming over her but hopefully that meant Big Green was alive. “I - uh - I’m going to my friends. Big friends.”</p><p>“Big? Big for you, not super mutant!” The mutant again poked her in the chest and sent her stumbling to the ground. “Where big human friends?”</p><p>Nat looked up the road toward Diamond City. It was a long shot, but maybe she could lead them toward the walls, find someone from security and get away in the fight. “Up there!”</p><p>The mutant followed her finger and looked for a really long time. It was long enough for Nat to start looking around and wondering if she could just walk off. She still couldn’t see Big Green anywhere but the ones on the roof were still laughing and every little while she could hear something clattering to the ground in the alley. That was where the super mutant had fallen off the roof. Were they tossing rocks at him?</p><p>As long as they didn’t start throwing them at her. She joined the mutant looking toward Diamond City and tried to gauge how far away it was, but quickly gave up when she realized it didn’t matter. It was too far, and she would have to outsmart these things if she didn’t want to get cooked alive.</p><p>“AH!” the super mutant shouted loudly enough to startle Nat. “Little human! Forgot you were there.”</p><p>So she could have just walked away? Crap! Piper would have thought of that.</p><p>“Did you see humans?” she asked.</p><p>“No! No humans in street and me look for long time!”</p><p>That was fair enough. “They’re further up,” she said as it rounded on her.</p><p>“Little human maybe lying. Not sure we should believe little human. What you think, brother?”</p><p>Another super mutant, this one holding a large sledgehammer dripping with something that made Nat feel sick, walked up to her and glared. “What I think? I think human still making noise! Why you not kill?”</p><p>Again, the super mutant poked her. “Human tiny! Stringy! Not good for eating.”</p><p>The second super mutant bent over, looking down on her as she tried again to stand up. “Hm. You are right, brother! This one not good for eating! Very smart.”</p><p>“I know I am smart!” The first one thumped his chest and held his gun in the air. “I should be leader!”</p><p>“You should be leader!”</p><p>Nat watched, unable to look away, as the two mutants began hitting each other with each compliment. She should have been trying to sneak or scuttle away or find somewhere to hide but she could not turn herself away from whatever was happening.</p><p>The first super mutant smacked the one with the sledgehammer hard enough to send him stumbling. “Okay! Enough good feelings. What we do with stringy human?”</p><p>“What we do?” The second one lifted the red, dripping hammer. “We play golf!”</p><p>“Golf?”</p><p>“Take club!” The mutant took the hammer and held it out to the first, punching him in the chest with it as he did. “You swing at tiny human, try to hit it as far as you can!”</p><p>“Stupid brother!” Another punch. “That game we play with mole rats!”</p><p>“Tiny human about size of mole rat.”</p><p>The two turned on her again and Nat’s eyes went wide. She could see her life ending just seconds from now, when one of these monsters tried to launch her as far as they could down the street. That was how she was going to die. No meaningful, storybook ending, just thrown down a street really hard.</p><p>“I wouldn’t do that!” she shouted as they began to come closer.</p><p>“Why not?” The first one bent down, now holding both his hammer and his gun. “You have other game we play?”</p><p>“Yes! Tell us other human game!”</p><p>Human game? What human game? “Uh,” she looked around frantically, searching for anything she could use to help her. Then it hit her. “Hide and seek!”</p><p>Both mutants looked at each other. “What is hide seek?”</p><p>“Fair way to hunt human. Human hides, you count to big number, then come find human. If you find human, you kill.”</p><p>The second super mutant scratched his head and looked at the first one. “Big number?”</p><p>The first one, however, was lit up like a Christmas tree. “I like this game!”</p><p>Nat grinned. Okay! She could get out of this after all!</p><p>Then the super mutant closed its eyes. “1… 2… 3!”</p><p>She should have guessed three was a big number for them.</p><p>The mutant looked down at her, confused. “Human! Why you no hide?! I count, you hide! Play stupid game right!”</p><p>The second mutant now brightened up the same way as the first one. “Human teaching us to play! We have won! Now we play golf! Then, human come back and we play hide seek again!”</p><p>“You are right, brother! Golf!”</p><p>Nat knew she was going to die. There was no way she could outrun them, but she was not about to go down without a fight. “You better not!” she said, puffing up her admittedly small chest in front of the towering mutants. “Big humans come find me! Big humans kill you if you no let me go!”</p><p>“Good!” The first one readied his hammer for a swing. “Big humans mean more meat!”</p><p>The swing never came. A deep, droning began to fill the air, like thousands of wings beating all at once. She had never heard anything like it in her life. All the machinery under Diamond City sounded like purring kittens compared to this noise.</p><p>Both the super mutants looked up in confusion, the three of them going slack-jawed as lights began to appear above the rooftops. The earth shook and buildings began to groan and crumble beneath the awesome sound. The mutants left on the roof screamed and pointed upward, jabbering and shouting with words that were impossible to hear.</p><p>The sky lit up, and then shattered.</p><p>
  <i>PEOPLE OF THE COMMONWEALTH!</i>
</p><p>
  <i>DO NOT BE ALARMED!</i>
</p><p>Everyone in the street, human and mutant, covered their ears at the blaring announcement. A massive, metal thing, like a building turned on its side, came floating over the streets, the lights on the front of it bright enough to force Nat to raise her hands over her eyes.</p><p>
  <i>OUR INTENTIONS ARE PEACEFUL!</i>
</p><p>Vertibirds, things Nat had only ever seen pictures of, began soaring into view, rotors spinning loud enough to be heard on the streets below. Gunfire erupted from every rooftop as the super mutants showed what they thought of these peaceful intentions. The vertibirds fired back, miniguns on their sides roaring and spewing fire like dragons onto the road below.</p><p>Nat yelped as something grabbed her by the arms and lifted her up, putting her out in the open with bullets still raining all over the street. The first mutant had dropped both the hammer and the gun and was now holding Nat up by her shoulders, screaming from behind her. “Make it stop! Tiny human! Make big noise stop!”</p><p>She tried to shout back but was ripped around like a rag doll, held up fifteen feet in the air as the mutant held her over its head. All she managed was the not very honest “I’m trying!”</p><p>The mutant wasn’t listening anyway and was instead shouting over her at the massive metal sky ship. “We have human! Take human back and go away!”</p><p>A flight of vertibirds began peeling toward them, three of them lining up above the street before diving like crows and crashing into the street with a shower of sparks. Men in big metal suits, full power armor rigs painted with white and gray, burst out of the doors and began filling the streets with laser fire.</p><p>The mutant holding her tossed her to the side and went for his gun. Nat had no idea what happened to him, covering her head as she was, but there was a lot of red, a lot of noise, and then a lot of glowing ash blowing in the street next to her, covering the discarded hammer that would have killed her just a few seconds earlier.</p><p>She stayed where she was, watching as those big armored suits began stomping through the streets. One looked at her and a man’s voice echoed from its metal faceplate. “Stay where you are, civilian. Let us handle this.”</p><p>Did they expect her to get up and start shooting? Of course she would let them handle this! Laser blasts echoed from the nearby alleyways, lining the stone in faint red with every shot. Some of the ones in power armor had miniguns that shot lasers instead of bullets, spinning up before turning the whole world red in front of them.</p><p>
  <i>WE ARE THE BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL!</i>
</p><p>Nat stayed where she was, sitting in the street while the battle played out. She looked around for Big Green and was terrified until something began nudging her arm. The street where she had been dropped was broken every few feet, pavement shattered over so many years until it rose and fell in little hills. Inside a crack not two feet deep, just deep enough for him to hide, Big Green had scuttled up to Nat and was now peering out, poking her elbow and clicking with worry.</p><p>“There you are!” She reached out and pulled the big bug out of the ground, hugging him and pulling him into her lap. “What is wrong with you? I told you to warn me, not go fighting super mutants!”</p><p>Big Green clicked and buzzed and tapped his little legs on her, turning in a very worried circle as he tried to watch all the soldiers at once. She put her arms around him as a few began to notice. Hopefully they would just think he was a big toy or at least would ask her before they shot him. Liv would kill her if he got turned to dust because she kidnapped him from the basement.</p><p>The soldiers seemed to ignore her and soon began reboarding their vertibirds. Nat was left sitting in the road, watching them take off and shout orders to one another without any of them paying any attention to her. Honestly, it was probably for the best.</p><p>“Hey, kid,” a woman’s voice came from behind her. “You alright? They didn’t hurt you did they?”</p><p>Nat looked up to see a woman in brown and black combat armor with a red undershirt kneeling over her, laser rifle set against the ground beside her. She adjusted the cap and goggles, smiling warmly as she looked Nat over.</p><p>“No. I’m fine,” she said slowly.</p><p>“Yeah? You survived all these mutants on your own? Impressive stuff. I wouldn’t want to go up against them alone.”</p><p>Nat looked at the pile of dust that she had been talking to a moment before. “I was teaching them to play hide and seek.”</p><p>The woman raised an eyebrow. “I can honestly say I wouldn’t have thought of that! You must be a very persuasive little girl. Smart, too. Is that your pet?”</p><p>Big Green looked up at the woman and clicked, buzzing his wings protectively. “He’s my friend. He killed one of them.”</p><p>“You killed a super mutant, little guy?” More buzzing from Big Green. “That’s more kills than some of the guys in my squad. We should recruit you. What do you say? Hot meals, good company, maybe a suit of power armor in it for you.”</p><p>Big Green in power armor was something that made Nat giggle. She had to see that. From her lap, Big Green buzzed again but didn’t move.</p><p>“My radroach is a little rusty. Is that a yes or a no? You don’t have to decide now. It’s a standing offer.” The woman turned to Nat again. “Do you mind if I look you over? Are you hurt, or did you take this whole gang on without a scratch?”</p><p>Nat stood up slowly, careful to let Big Green scuttle onto her backpack where no one would shoot him. “I don’t think so.”</p><p>“Well, let me take a look at you. What’s your name, kid?”</p><p>The woman began picking her over, applying something to her scraped knee that stung before putting a small bandage over it. “Nat.”</p><p>“Nice to meet you, Nat. You can call me Haylen. Are you out here with anyone? Is your family around?”</p><p>She looked down at Big Green, thinking. She didn’t know what to do. Was she supposed to keep going, looking for Liv and the Institute and trying to save her? She couldn’t handle raiders, she couldn’t handle super mutants, but she thought she could handle the Institute? Even if she couldn’t, this was Liv. She needed to help her.</p><p>Maybe this Haylen person could help. “I’m looking for my family. My big sister got kidnapped.”</p><p>Haylen finished putting the bandage on and put her hands on Nat’s shoulders. She had very kind eyes. “Poor thing. Did you come out here looking for her?”</p><p>Nat nodded. “I can’t just leave her.”</p><p>“That’s very brave of you, Nat.” Haylen looked around, making hand signals at one of the guys in power armor before looking back to her. “Do you want to come along with me for a little while? We can help look for her. Your little friend can come too. Let’s call it a recruitment opportunity. You hear that, little guy? Kill some more super mutants for me and there’s a big pile of - whatever you things eat - in it for you. How about that?”</p><p>Not as easily persuaded as Nat, Big Green eyed her cautiously from Nat’s shoulder and buzzed softly. He was a survivor, after all. He wasn’t going to just blindly trust anyone. “He says he’ll try.”</p><p>He also didn’t like having words put in his mouth. Climbing onto her backpack, he clicked irritably until Haylen finished laughing and adjusted the goggles on her hat. “Alright, you two, rescue mission time! Fall in! We’ve got a civilian in distress and the clock is running!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Apex Predator</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Olivia goes on her first Railroad assignment and encounters a very large problem</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Olivia did not get much practice in with her sidearm, which didn’t bother her in the slightest but was probably something she should have worried about for when Glory wasn’t around to kill everything in sight.</p><p>She spent most of her time trying not to look at the carnage wrought by the Railroad Heavy and her minigun, but it was loud and bright and she had already been chastised for not watching the ground for mines or tripwires. So she forced herself to look at the brutalized bodies of super mutants and feral ghouls and try her best to keep her lunch down. This was not a sight she wanted to get used to.</p><p>Glory spun down her minigun, wisps of smoke blowing in the wind and the barrels cooling from a faint red to a pleasant black. “Whew! What a fight, eh, kid?”</p><p>It probably had been. Olivia hadn’t seen any of it while hiding behind a building but it had sounded fantastic. She nodded at Glory but didn’t look at her, still trying not to sick up all over the messy street. “It was something.”</p><p>There was a long pause before Glory sighed and began walking over to her. “Probably a little more exciting than what you were used to in the Institute. Do you remember what your job was, at all?”</p><p>“Delivering stuff. I think.” She was keeping it vague on purpose, not wanting to give away her lie just yet, and it helped that opening her mouth for too long let her taste the stench now rising from the pavement and it was not a pleasant experience.</p><p>“I thought I heard you say that.” Glory put a hand on her shoulder and steered her toward the next building, away from the gore staining the ground. “This is probably not what you imagine being out here would be like. I didn’t think so either. Took me a long time to get used to it, actually.”</p><p>“Really?” Olivia burped and paused long enough for her stomach to settle again. “I thought you’d been doing this forever.”</p><p>“Feels like it, some days,” Glory said as she leaned against the wall next to her. “But not quite forever. I used to be just like you, way back in the day, before Des made an honest woman out of me.”</p><p>She winked and Olivia laughed but quickly closed her mouth again to keep out that horrible taste.</p><p>“What? I’m plenty honest, these days. Des was actually the reason I didn’t go through the memory wipe. See, there’s a big secret around how most synths get out. Somebody named Patriot helped smuggle me out of the Institute and put me where the Railroad could pick me up. Not sure if that’s what happened to you; maybe something went wrong or you found your own way out, but that’s how it was for the rest of us.” Glory peered down the alley in both directions, satisfied they weren’t being overheard. “I was supposed to go get my memory wiped, same as you, but back then the Railroad was short on people, and Des was a lot more hands on. She was the one who took me in to get my brain scrambled.”</p><p>Olivia looked up at the imposing woman and found herself returning the infectious, cocky smirk. “She talked you out of it?”</p><p>“You’ve met her, right?” Glory chuckled fondly. “She’s got a way with words. Talked my damn ear off about doing what’s right, rescuing more synths and helping my fellow man, be they human or synth. She never asked me to join, you know, that’s the worst part. She said I’d done my part, that I could go on and live the life I deserved to have.”</p><p>She paused for dramatic effect, allowing Olivia to start laughing again. “So you joined instead of leaving?”</p><p>“She had me begging to join; still reminds me of it, actually, which makes me want to get my brain reset even more.” Glory’s look turned from affectionate ribbing to sincerity for just a moment. “She’s more than the rest of us deserve, you know. Don’t forget that.”</p><p>Olivia nodded. “I know.”</p><p>“I’ll bet, taking in strays like you.” Glory nudged her in the shoulder hard enough to knock her off balance. “Don’t feel bad if you can’t swing a minigun like the best of us - me, specifically. This outfit needs brains as much as brawn, and I don’t mind having a nice, cozy monopoly on the muscle work. I’m not much good at the rest of it. So, delivery girl, you go drop that package off, make your little chalk drawings, and meet me back in this alley in an hour, alright?”</p><p>She had been nodding along until the part about splitting up came long. “Wait, what?”</p><p>“I can’t hold your hand the whole time! I’ve got my own heroic mission to go on, and I don’t think you want to be around for it.” Glory nodded toward a nearby building that looked to be falling in on itself. “That used to be one of our old safehouses. Not one of the bigger ones, just a bolthole where we hid runaways for a day or two before we found a home for them. Can’t even remember the name of this one, honestly. Raiders took it out after the Institute knocked out the Switchboard. I’m supposed to clean it out and find any survivors.”</p><p>Olivia looked back toward the pile of bodies in the street and imagined how it would look if they were human beings. She did not like the idea. “Oh.”</p><p>Glory nodded meaningfully. “Oh is right. Listen, if Des is right, all the raiders are having a big get together somewhere in town. This little gang is too small to get an invite. I go in, ask around politely if they’ve seen any of our friends, come out, find you, and then we both go home. Just be careful, stay quiet, and act natural.”</p><p>For someone who was, by apocalypse reckoning, only a few months old, natural was not something she had figured out just yet. “I’ll try,” she said, and she meant it.</p><p>Des had a way with words, and she was glad that Glory agreed. It was worth noting that Glory was getting an arguably better deal out of joining the Railroad than she was, following Des around like a lost puppy, but she was determined not to be jealous over that fact. Jealousy did not come easy when both Des and Glory had been so good to her, so kind and welcoming and protective, when all she had done so far was lie and follow along like a lost puppy.</p><p>She also could not imagine the stress the relationship placed on them. How worried must Des have been every time Glory went out on a mission? Did Glory ever feel the same way, remembering what happened at the Switchboard and wondering if today was the day the Institute tried to cut off the snake’s proverbial head?</p><p>No, give her the simple life. Let Des embed her in Diamond City to watch for robot mayor attacks and keep an eye on Piper. That she could do, and she could do it happily.</p><p>Glory was smiling and hoisted her minigun meaningfully. “Alright, Tourist, get a move on. Time’s wasting. I’ll see you back here in an hour, understood?”</p><p>Olivia gave her a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am.”</p><p>“Good. Double time. Quietly. Quiet double time. Stay low. Act natural. Go go go.”</p><p>At least she was in good spirits. Maybe this wouldn’t be as dangerous as she was making it out to be.</p><p>She poked her head out of the alley, remembering only moments later that she was supposed to be in character as a scavenger and stumbling out in a sort of stealthy, half-drunk wobble that she was certain was employed by Wastelanders everywhere. The road outside was quiet, mercifully, and her dead drop was away from the piles of bodies Glory had left behind, up the street and near the next cluster of crumbling buildings.</p><p>Near the next intersection, where a semi had crashed through four smaller cars before coming to a stop inside a convenience store, she leaned against the wall and took a casual look around. Her ears were still ringing, having been thoroughly abused by Glory’s minigun, and looking around gave them time to rest. There didn’t seem to be much to see or hear. In fact, this part of the city looked totally abandoned. It was a weird, otherworldly feeling she got from looking at the old corner shops and apartment buildings and realizing they were just shapes, now, four walls and a roof but nothing more than that. The personality wasn’t there, anymore. The building had died and all that was left was the shell. Nostalgia wasn’t quite the right word for it but she certainly felt that, too, as she looked on humanity’s faded works with all their meaning drained away.</p><p>It was a bad time for her mind to be wandering. As she began plodding her way across the street, stepping awkwardly over loose bits of pavement, she reasoned that her trance would further sell her cover. The sound of battle had clearly driven everything else away.</p><p>As she neared that next cluster of crumbling buildings, the signs out front revealing them to be a pawn shop, laundromat, and yet another corner store. There were actually six shops in this row but time and a misguided minivan had demolished three of them, signs and all. In the rubble behind the minivan, miraculously missed in the spectacular crash, were three newspaper boxes, just like Des had described.</p><p>She pulled out the special, super secret Railroad chalk when she got near enough to lean up against the boxes. Deacon had shown her the proper sign to draw and even given her a small cheat sheet, which she now consulted. The signs weren’t exactly works of art, for which she was grateful, and she quickly got to work scratching away in the right places.</p><p>Just a few lines here, a little touch up there. Well, maybe not. Should she try and camouflage the drawing? It looked so obvious. What if she scratched out a bit of this line here?</p><p>This might take a little more time than she thought.</p><p>She spent a good few minutes touching up the edges, forgetting temporarily that she was now a very wanted woman. If anyone from the Institute caught her, she would probably be tortured for information before being allowed to die in a lightless cell far from everyone she cared about. Instead she focused on making this straight line look like it might have faded out over the years.</p><p>Piper would have appreciated this. All the amateur spycraft and secret symbols and subterfuge would have made her giddy. She might have even put on a different hat, one with a wider brim, and swapped her trench coat out for one of the faded ones like Nick had. The woman did love getting in character.</p><p>As much as she missed her, Olivia was slightly dreading her eventual return to Diamond City. Piper would want details. She would want to know all about the Railroad, their operations, who their contacts were, where they were located, and a thousand other questions she would pepper her with until she was forced to leave the city. Des would just love that. A stray cat showing up on her doorstep was one thing, but a stray cat followed by the Commonwealth’s preeminent journalist? That was something else.</p><p>Did that mean she should think up a story for her absence? They might not even know why she was gone. How would they have worked it out? She was in the lounger one second, gone the next. Not a whole lot to go on, even for an accomplished snoop.</p><p>Nightshade was always a good excuse. Actually, she was sort of near the old tv station. Galaxy News had a dedicated studio somewhere around here. She had done a few deliveries in her day, each experience made memorable by the level of harassment involved. Sometimes, the loading bay was being tended by a low-level manager that found her delivery hoodie irresistibly tempting, and she didn’t blame him; Quantum Leap outsourced some sexy threads. Other times, Olivia would awkwardly flirt with the extremely attractive intern who sometimes was forced to deal with such menial tasks. She wanted to be an anchor there, one day, or so she had told Olivia when that hoodie of hers was working its magic.</p><p>That settled it. She would tell Piper that Nightshade had once again kidnapped her, stringing her up and doing many threatening things to her before letting her go. Raider or not, she had treated Olivia well enough so far.</p><p>She had just put the finishing touches on her drawing and was about to wipe her hands when she froze. Something deep inside her, something that had crouched around fires watching for predators with the rest of the tribe, was terrified.</p><p>Throat dry, she looked slowly to the left, seeing an empty street. To the right, more nothingness, and not even a gust of wind to disturb the dust. She forced herself to stand, slowly peering over the boxes at what was on the other side.</p><p>Reptilian eyes stared at her, unblinking, yellow with black slits that were the size of softballs but still looked small inside the gargantuan skull that housed them. Her breath caught, her heart stopping as she stared at the monster that should have remained in her nightmares. It loomed in the destroyed buildings, massive claws reaching the sides of the gap that must have been twenty feet wide. It stood on two powerful legs covered in green scales, its intimidating frame built large enough to tower at least ten feet over her head even when it was not standing straight. Behind it, curling out of sight behind the buildings, was a long tail that shifted menacingly as it stared at her.</p><p>Olivia’s mouth hung open, but she lacked the air to scream. She could only stare in horrified silence as the deathclaw began to pad forward over the rubble.</p><p>Her legs moved on their own as some small, animal part of her howled and tried to scramble into the nearest hole, but the rest of her was petrified. She could only manage to back away slowly, eyes fixed on the pair of devilish horns protruding from the monster’s skull. The creature followed her, keeping pace with long strides as she backed into the street. Each step must have carried it almost ten feet. There was no way she could outrun it, no way she could fight it.</p><p>As one of the enormous, clawed feet crushed one of the newspaper boxes, her heel caught a bit of uneven pavement and she went down with a pitiful gasp. The monster took a quick step forward, its mouth opening to expose rows of teeth longer than her arms. A deep rasping sound came from its throat as it came closer and Olivia could swear it was laughing. It reached back one of its claws as it took the last step forward, the full length of it exposed against the clear blue sky.</p><p>She could barely hear her own voice as she pleaded. “Help. Please.”</p><p>The deathclaw twitched. Olivia barely noticed, staring up at it from flat on her back, but she saw the head snap around up the street. The rasping turned to a roar that split the world in half, deafening her and echoing in her bones until she was screaming along with it just to make it stop. She curled up in a ball and put her hands over her ears but nothing would shut it out. The sound was more than just noise, it was a force inside her that was shaking her apart.</p><p>It stopped when a spray of rubble struck her in the face. She opened her eyes, shocked that she still had eyes to open, to find the deathclaw turning a slow circle. Its foot had come down on the pavement just beside her, almost crushing her even though it seemed not to care about her anymore.</p><p>She watched, transfixed, as it turned all the way around, facing her again after swiping its tail over the cars that littered the street. Its eyes, still small in that horrible face, seemed to turn almost black as the pupils dilated. The sound in its throat now turned to soft growls that still terrified her, but they sounded different. They almost sounded sleepy.</p><p>The monster looked down at her as if to ask what she had done but all she could do was cower in the dirt. Good luck or bad, Olivia was no longer sure, but she knew there was a lot of it around her at the moment and she wanted it to leave.</p><p>Leave it did. With a final unhappy groan, the deathclaw fell forward onto the pavement, unable to keep its eyes open any longer.</p><p>Olivia stared at it from her place on the ground, still unable to take a breath. It was asleep. Someone had done that. Right? Someone had put it to sleep somehow. Glory would have just shot it. Did Des send someone else? She had to have sent someone else. Or maybe Nora had found her.</p><p>Someone in a black coat came tearing out of the building closest to her, vaulting over the hood of a car in an easy leap and came crashing into her without slowing. Olivia felt a hand grab the back of her own coat and thrust her forward, dragging her along over the broken pavement and into one of the apartment buildings on the side of the street. She yelped in surprise but was too busy trying to keep her footing to say anything intelligent.</p><p>The human blur dragged her up the stairs, her feet kicking like a dog trying to swim in midair, until they reached the third floor and an open room. Kicking the door open, the person holding her dragged her into a room that held a small sofa, tv, and a wooden desk with a terminal.</p><p>The terminal was sent crashing to the floor as Olivia was shoved face-first onto the desk with another pained yelp. She tried to push away on instinct but found herself pinned to the table, her latest kidnapper’s grip on her neck firm and their elbow digging painfully into her back. Her legs, bent awkwardly as she was pressed onto the low surface, could do little more than kick feebly as she tried to gain purchase.</p><p>“You know, I’m getting tired of being the physical manifestation of your luck,” whispered a woman’s voice, familiar but terrifyingly angry. Olivia found herself both relieved that she knew who was pinning her to the table and very much afraid for what was going to happen next.</p><p>Wriggling beneath the woman’s iron grip, Olivia managed to gasp “I don’t know. I really appreciate it.”</p><p>“Do you?” Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because she found herself jerked to her feet and hauled to the far side of the room, where part of the wall had fallen away and exposed the street below. “You have no idea what you just did but go on, tell me how appreciative you are. Sell it to me.”</p><p>She tried to but was cut off as she was whipped around to face an extremely angry Nightshade. Eyes wide with a rage she had never seen before, whatever words she was going to speak were cut off when a hand slammed into her chest, clutching the fabric there and lifting her off the ground and over the street.</p><p>“Well? Tell me something sweet because I have half a mind to let you drop and see how lucky you are without me to save you when that deathclaw wakes up.”</p><p>Olivia was too busy grabbing at the woman’s wrist, clinging to her for dear life like a small animal. She could feel the thirty feet of empty air below her almost as well as she could feel the heat radiating from Nightshade’s face. “Okay! I’m sorry! I didn’t - God, you are really strong.”</p><p>The observation earned her a rough shake as she dangled in midair. “Give me a reason I shouldn’t just throw you into the street and save myself the trouble of dealing with you again. Why is it that I keep saving you? What makes you worth this?”</p><p>It began to dawn on her that Piper had been right. Nightshade had treated her well, but she was a raider. She had seen it herself, the raider side of her that she so often presented to the rest of the world, she had just gotten used to seeing that other one. She had gotten used to the free meals and the kind words, the soft touches that came with her every demand. Even when they had first met, Nightshade hadn’t been angry, not like she was now.</p><p>But she was angry, and Olivia was suddenly terrified. “I - I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”</p><p>“That’s not a very good reason,” Nightshade growled.</p><p>She shook her again and Olivia’s words were cut off in a gasp of terror. “Please! Please, I’m sorry! I didn’t see it there. I didn’t - please don’t kill me. I’ll - I’ll do anything.”</p><p>Nightshade didn’t answer. For one heartbeat, then two, then three, she just stared into her eyes, hate simmering plainly on the surface. It was all Olivia could do to claw feebly at her hand, taking the worst of the pain from her neck and hoping that if she dropped her she might be able to hang on for just a moment longer.</p><p>Still without speaking, Nightshade yanked her back into the building hard enough to draw another gasp from her lips and send her sprawling onto the floor. She turned over onto her side, looking up in panic at the raider she had actually trusted not to hurt her.</p><p>It was the raider, not Nightshade, not the stranger who had fed and protected her, that was staring down at her, and she could swear she saw tears in those murderous eyes. “I should have let you die. I should have let you fucking die.”</p><p>She still didn’t understand, but she didn’t need to for that look to pin her to the floor and leave her bleeding in its wake. It passed as Nightshade turned away, crossing the room slowly to stand near the open door. Olivia watched her shoulder her syringer and put her face in her hands, breathing deeply for a long moment. She didn’t move, not to run away and not to grab the gun still holstered beneath her coat. Even now, she didn’t want to kill her, she just wanted to understand.</p><p>Nightshade’s hands fell away and her exhausted sigh could be heard from where Olivia had propped herself up on one elbow. “Get up.”</p><p>Olivia didn’t move. “What?”</p><p>“You’re not safe here,” Nightshade said without turning around, voice quiet and without inflection. “You won’t exactly be safe with me, either, but it’s better than being on your own, doing whatever the fuck you were doing out here.”</p><p>When Nightshade did turn around to face her, Olivia wasn’t sure which one she was looking at, but she supposed it didn’t matter. If the raider wanted her to come with her, she would go or she would die. If the other Nightshade wanted her to come along, then she would have followed her. She would have trusted that Nightshade not to hurt her.</p><p>She jumped to her feet as Nightshade started walking toward her, the sudden movement stopping her in her tracks after a single step. “Okay! Okay, I’m coming. You don’t have to… do that again.”</p><p>Nightshade’s face was unreadable. This must have been the raider. The other one had promised not to kidnap her or hurt her if she came along. The other one had saved her life.</p><p>This one just turned away and started walking down the stairs, toward the street and the sleeping deathclaw, expecting Olivia to follow. She did follow, quietly and back far enough to be out of her reach, past the motionless deathclaw that still took slow, ragged breaths; a sleeping dragon, not a dead one.</p><p>Nightshade walked right over the tail, pulling a large, gleaming metal pistol from her side as she approached the head. Olivia heard the click of the hammer and panicked. She was going to wake it up, make it chase her for interrupting whatever she was doing, and -</p><p>The gunshot echoed through the empty streets and Nightshade did not even break her stride. She just stepped over the monster’s skull, over the hole she had just put in it, and kept walking. Olivia followed behind, steering well clear of the monster’s limbs and gaping maw. From the sidewalk, she could see the wound in its head, a deep red scar against the green and brown scales that had made it look like a creature from hell itself.</p><p>And Nightshade had killed it without a thought. She scampered after the raider, looking up with quiet dread at the Galaxy News studio that now loomed on the horizon. Whatever Nightshade was doing there, she had a feeling she was going to find out in person, whether she liked it or not.</p>
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<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Breaking News</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Piper meets the Railroad, Olivia has a long talk with Nightshade, and Nat gets to fly in a vertibird</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Piper’s first moments in the Railroad were not what she expected. Creeping through a dark tunnel to find a ring of underground synth smugglers was, in short, the most exciting thing she had ever done. She was physically shaking as she groped blindly down the catacombs, imaging what kind of gritty freedom fighters she was about to encounter. Thoughts raced in her head of Institute traps, the kind that would bring her face to face with the enemy she had been hunting for so long. She imagined a grand shootout visible only in the blue flashes of laser fire and the muted orange-white bursts from her trusty sidearm.</p><p>She imagined how she would tell Nora all about it later. She hadn’t needed any help surviving before she came along and she certainly didn’t need any help now.</p><p>A small part of her wanted to wait for Nora to come back from the Glowing Sea to tackle this, but that required her to accept that Olivia was safe, and she was never willing to accept that. As lucky as that girl was, she was even worse at getting in over her head than Piper, and she set the bar pretty darn high.</p><p>So she pressed on without fear, leaving her good sense at the door to the Old North Church and taking the plunge into a world of intrigue and, as she soon learned, very angry women.</p><p>The first and angriest woman had red hair, a tan vest, and a very fetching scarf wrapped loosely around her neck and tossed casually over one shoulder. She mentally took notes as to how she carried herself, how she had placed that scarf in such a devil-may-care way that was too perfect to be anything but intentional. It was probably a good thing Piper had never sketched a fictional Railroad operative because they would have looked exactly like her.</p><p>And they would have given the nosy journalist the same wide-eyed look of surprise and boiling rage that this woman adopted the second Piper came into the light.</p><p>Piper put up her hands in a gesture of peace and decided it was time to put that silver tongue of hers to work. “Hey -”</p><p>The woman produced a gun and pointed it at Piper’s head, a gesture repeated moments later by a dozen other figures elsewhere in the room. Even for her, this was a lot of heat directed her way, and she was no stranger to the business end of a pipe pistol. She spared a moment of mild appreciation for the fact that none of these weapons appeared to be cobbled-together wrecks of copper and old piping, so at least she would die to something with a little style.</p><p>“You have ten seconds to explain why I shouldn’t shoot you in the head,” the woman said in a shockingly level tone of voice, though the rage beneath was rather hard to miss. “Did someone hang a sign at the door or is Glory just inviting all her friends over for a party?”</p><p>Someone near the back spoke up excitedly. “Oh, man, Des, you know who that is? That’s the Institute’s number one person of interest!”</p><p>The man, wearing multiple pairs of goggles but none of them over his eyes, hopped cheerfully into view just in time for the angry redhead to snap at him. “I’m aware, Tom. Now, before you let even more of your friends in behind you, why don’t you tell me what you’re doing in my headquarters? Timer’s running, Miss Wright, so speak quickly.”</p><p>Piper pursed her lips, for once in her life thinking carefully about the words she chose to speak. “I followed the Freedom Trail.”</p><p>Whether it was the right thing or not, it mercifully redirected all that heat toward someone wearing a white shirt and sunglasses. The woman actually looked more angry with him than with Piper and that was impressive, considering the gun was still pointed at her lovely forehead. “I told you -”</p><p>“The legend works, Des! It’s gotten us a ton of recruits. Where would we be without it?”</p><p>Des opened her mouth to tell him exactly where she thought he ought to be but paused just before spitting it out. “Before Switchboard, everything was fine. This was a recruitment… hole - an actual hole the ground where we brought recruits so they wouldn’t jeopardize the mission. If there was anywhere else for us to set up, anywhere at all, this wouldn’t be a problem. We would have Miss Wright here walking in on Deacon taking a nap instead of the beating heart of our operation.”</p><p>All the attention in the room pivoted, unfortunately, to the odd woman out. Hands still above her head, Piper tried to smile disarmingly. “Would it make things easier if I said I wasn’t looking for an interview?”</p><p>Deacon snorted but Des just glowered. “It would buy you a few minutes, give me time to string you up on the firing range and take the opportunity to blow off some steam.”</p><p>What was it with her and angry women wanting to tie her to things? Was it the coat? The winning personality? The hat? It was the hat, wasn’t it? “I’m just looking for my friend. That’s all.”</p><p>“Not the story we usually hear, greeting new additions. Would this be your escaped synth companion?”</p><p>She was going to kill Olivia the next time she saw her. Escaped synth? The girl couldn’t lie to save her life but apparently she decided to start with a lie that would almost certainly get her killed!</p><p>“Yeah,” Piper said before the pause could be noticed. “Sorry. I wasn’t sure she’d tell you about that.”</p><p>Des gave her a curious look. “Why not? We’re the Railroad, this is what we do.”</p><p>“It’s still admitting you’re a synth. I was surprised when she told me, honestly. I don’t have the best reputation when it comes to them.”</p><p>Deacon chuckled more loudly this time. “Great cover for moving them in and out of the Commonwealth, though.”</p><p>“No, it isn’t,” Des growled back. “The only people the Institute hates more than her is us. It’s so small a step down I’d call it a step sideways. And no, I will not go through the very long list of reasons to not hide synths in Diamond City - so help me, if you’re about to say hidden in plain sight, I will knock those glasses off your face.”</p><p>He did not say something about being hidden in plain sight, which was fortunate because that was exactly what Piper was thinking, too. Instead, he decided to be delicate and turned to Piper. “You’re not catching us at our best. Things are a little stressful right now.”</p><p>To everyone’s surprise and Piper’s relief, Des lowered her gun. “A step sideways. I suppose you’re the one person I can trust not to be an Institute operative. My apologies. Welcome to the Railroad, Piper. That’s Deacon, Tom, and I’m Desdemona. I’d go around with more thorough introductions but things have not been going well.”</p><p>Deacon looked from Des to Piper and looked like he wanted to speak up but elected to keep quiet, allowing Piper to lower her hands and come closer to where Des was leaning over a map of Boston. “Is there anything I can do to help? I know I’m not the most subtle person and I kind of have a name around here, but I do want to help.”</p><p>Des gave her an appreciative look. “That’s the kind of attitude we need around here. There aren’t a lot of people around with enlightened attitudes toward synths. It’s so bad that most of them have a hard time shaking it themselves, even knowing they deserve better. I can’t imagine what it’s like in the Institute.”</p><p>That was something Piper thought about daily. Learning synths could be just as good as people had been an uncomfortable experience. It was easier when she had just imagined them as mindless drones, built to replace and wreak havoc. Then she had learned they had feelings, ambitions, emotions, and everything else that made up a real human being. What a surprise it must have been for them when something that was a perfect copy of a human ended up behaving like a human.</p><p>She didn’t like to think about her old self, the one that saw synths as less than human. She had grown up since then and she wanted very much to leave her younger self in the past.</p><p>“I’ve actually imagined you coming in here a lot over the years,” Des continued as Piper leaned against the makeshift stone table beside her.</p><p>“In a good way or a bad way?” Piper asked, attempting to recover her famous wit.</p><p>“Both,” Des admitted, a wry smile on her lips. “Depends on my mood. I’m still not sure what I should ask you to do with that paper of yours. It’s helped drum up a lot of hate for the Institute, but it’s not exactly a precision tool. The hatred for them gets confused with hate for synths, and that’s something that makes our job a lot harder. We want sympathy for their cause as much as we want anger at their oppressors.”</p><p>Piper nodded uncomfortably but stayed silent, unsure of how to answer what she considered a damning truth about her work. She had tried. Hadn’t she? Or was she so focused on her own quest, her own desire to get rid of the Institute, that she was okay hurting so many innocents in order to get there? They weren’t her people and she would never have to see them. Why should she worry?</p><p>“I don’t know that I’d have you change anything,” Des said thoughtfully, filling in the space with something Piper wasn’t sure she deserved to hear. “Start talking about equal rights for synths and their liberation and you’ll disappear inside a week. You’ll be too dangerous, too inconvenient, and too much like us to be allowed to live in the open. We barely scrape by our own existence and we have to be silent in order to do it.”</p><p>“That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t say anything.” Voicing her own doubts aloud was uncomfortable to say the least, but it was how she truly felt when she was lying in her bed, alone in the dark.</p><p>“Martyrdom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Going out in a blaze of glory can be what a movement needs, but if everyone gets burnt up, no one’s left in the movement. We need people like you, just like we need people like me and, unfortunately, Tom, Deacon, and everyone else down here.”</p><p>Des finally looked up from her map to give Piper a smile she didn’t deserve. She was here to take someone away from her movement, a movement she still wasn’t convinced she was helping at all with her paper. She still managed a tight smile. “Thanks.”</p><p>“It’s the least I could do, especially considering what I have to say next. You should sit down before we go any further.”</p><p>Oh no. Piper felt her legs begin to give out. “Olivia. She’s not - what happened? Where is she?”</p><p>“She went out with the best agent we have, an operative named Glory. Our tourists in the area reported the two went their separate ways to complete their objectives with Glory drawing most of the fire.” Des waited until Piper had seated herself against a nearby stone coffin. She could feel her face had gone pale as a sheet. “While delivering her package, Olivia was ambushed by a deathclaw.”</p><p>Piper fell back against the pillar. Her head spun, her vision blurring. She was going to be sick. Oh, God, she was going to be sick.</p><p>“We aren’t sure what happened next,” Des cut in quickly. “All we know for certain is that Olivia survived long enough to be taken prisoner by raiders.”</p><p>Her head still spinning, Piper tried to get her bearings. Not killed by a deathclaw. Taken prisoner by raiders. Raiders killed a deathclaw?</p><p>The realization hit her like a punch in the chest. “Oh, fuck.”</p><p>“We’re not sure -”</p><p>“I have to go.” Piper shot to her feet, moving toward the door in a panic.</p><p>Des followed after a moment later. “Wait! What’s wrong?”</p><p>“Where was this? Where was she taken?” When Des sputtered, looking back at her map, Piper pushed harder. “Was it near a tv station?”</p><p>“I - how did - yes, it was. Why?”</p><p>Piper was already hurrying toward the door. “I have to go! Nice meeting you!”</p><p>She rushed past Deacon and began sprinting up the dark tunnel, heedless of the many loose rocks and low ceilings she had carefully avoided on the way in. It didn’t matter. She had known that damn raider would be back, had known it in her bones but had dragged Olivia out into the Wasteland again anyway. This was all her fault. It was just like at the racetrack.</p><p>Only this time, Piper knew what she was getting into. This time, no one was going to be getting the drop on her. This time, Piper was going to be the one with the upper hand, and it was going to be Piper pressing that smug raider face into a wall and whispering in her ear. Let’s see her wriggle out of this once she was the one handcuffed to a chair.</p><p>Oh, this was going to be sweet.</p><p> </p><p>The old tv station had held together pretty well considering all the bombs that had fallen around it. It was still a stiff breeze away from falling over but it hadn’t fallen over yet, and that was the part that counted these days.</p><p>They were up on the second floor of the building in a room that looked like something out of a war movie. There were hundreds of tv screens and monitors hanging from the high ceiling that rose at least twenty feet in the air. On two of the walls were massive screens that extended nearly floor to ceiling, only stopping about three feet off the ground to make room for a long metal table that might have once held news reports. The room was at least forty feet wide with a pair of smaller, isolated rooms in the back with sets and seating where the news was actually filmed. Between those two rooms and the big screens were rows and rows of monitors, workstations, and everything a big news outlet needed to run. This place could have probably held a hundred people with plenty of legroom.</p><p>It was in one of the back rooms that Olivia had been placed and it was in this room that she intended to stay, not just because this new Nightshade had told her to but because of the other people roaming the halls. There were indeed easily a hundred people wandering around the station and that was just the ones she had seen. Raiders with guns and armor that looked much more terrifying that the ragged group she had seen outside the vault. These ones had set up barricades, didn’t talk much, and looked ready for a fight.</p><p>As frightening as they were, she would have almost preferred their company to Nightshade’s. The raider boss had left her in this room for hours without any explanation; she had just told her to stay here because she was safe and that was supposed to be enough. She hadn’t even said what she was safe from! Was it being dropped in the street by a crazy-strong, crazy-angry woman? Because even the lack of windows here didn’t make her feel very safe from that.</p><p>She still hadn’t moved from the exact spot Nightshade had dumped her, remaining in her uncomfortable chair with nothing to do but think unhappy thoughts, until the door behind her clicked open at last.</p><p>It had been hours, she was sure, but Nightshade still didn’t say a word when she entered. There was just the sound of her footsteps coming closer before a small, red box was placed gently into her lap. Olivia actually sniffed in surprise, reading the label aloud. “Salisbury steak.”</p><p>A cold Nuka hovered beside her until she reached a hand up to take it, allowing Nightshade to move around her. “For old time’s sake. Not quite worthy of royalty, but it’s the best I could do on short notice.”</p><p>Her tone had not quite returned to the lazy, almost hypnotic patterns Olivia had come to expect from her, but at least she wasn’t telling her she should be dead. She had gotten enough of that from other women in her life. “Gotta respect the classics.”</p><p>The seal came away with a hiss and the smell instantly set her stomach rumbling violently. She really didn’t eat enough when she was out on these ridiculous adventures. Just like last time, she tucked in, not caring how it looked to the woman watching. If this was going to be her last meal, she was going to enjoy it.</p><p>Nightshade moved slowly behind her and Olivia heard the squeaking of a seat just to her left. The amphitheatre seating arrangements would have forced her to awkwardly crane her neck in order to see the woman properly, so she just kept right on eating. It was probably better this way. She had always been a pushover. Having to look at Nightshade and be angry with her, even after she had dangled her out a window and told her she should be dead, would have been almost impossible.</p><p>She had nearly finished the steak when Nightshade sighed, more softly and wearily than she had ever heard from her. “What were you doing out there, Olivia?”</p><p>Chewing the flash-cooked meat gave her enough time to wonder over every part of that simple question. The Railroad probably wouldn’t want her admitting to working with them. There was a chance Nightshade didn’t know she was out there with Glory and she would come in, minigun blazing, to save her from the raiders. She wasn’t sure if she wanted that or not. Nightshade had just saved her life, even if she had done it in a very abusive way, and this wasn’t the first time she had done it.</p><p>And since when did she use her name? She chanced a look behind her, peering out of the corner of her eye to find a woman who looked on the verge of collapse, her head in her hands, elbows on her knees. It was so unlike the invincible, unstoppable Nightshade that she nearly caved on the spot. There were plenty of women in her past that could attest to how much of a doormat she could be.</p><p>When Nightshade pulled her hands away, Olivia quickly turned back to the front of the room and swallowed her food. She wasn’t going to roll over for her just because she was tired from all the murdering and yelling that filled her days. “Nothing.”</p><p>There was a soft, mirthless laugh from behind her. “A few of my people described your companion. They had no idea who she was, but even they were smart enough to see the minigun and the bad attitude and steer clear of you. Not many people would recognize her, you know. Most of the ones who have seen her in action are dead. Her people don’t mix well with mine, if you can believe it.”</p><p>So she did know. Of course she did. What was the point of asking if she already knew? Olivia stabbed at her potatoes miserably. She hated being so helpless. If she was like Nora, she would have just killed the deathclaw and gotten away from Nightshade without breaking a sweat.</p><p>When she said nothing, Nightshade continued. “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me. You’ve more than earned a little privacy, especially from me. I won’t ask you for any trade secrets. Tell me, though, have they made you a full agent? Are you here hunting raider bosses? Am I your target, lured into complacency and waiting to be shot down?”</p><p>It took effort but she resisted the smile that had begun to play at her lips, the gentle teasing a pleasant contrast to being dangled out a third story window. She wanted to laugh. She wanted even more to be that agent who was skilled enough to shoot her way out of something like this. “I’m a tourist. I play with chalk.”</p><p>The short answer was not what Nightshade had wanted and she fell silent, whatever face she was making hidden behind Olivia’s back. That was fine. She didn’t care about that.</p><p>After a long moment, the chair squeaked again and she watched as Nightshade slowly lowered herself over the row of chairs, planting herself in the seat at Olivia’s elbow without making a sound. She could see her face clearly now and the exhaustion on it was plain as day. That on its own would have been enough to get Olivia’s attention but what stopped her fork halfway to her mouth was the look of frustration that was trying to mask it.</p><p>“The Railroad doesn’t let just anyone in the door, you know. I don’t know anyone who has seen them in person and survived the experience; even I’ve never managed to exchange pleasantries with them and I consider myself very sociable when it comes to the Wasteland’s most wanted. Just by getting in the door, you’ve done something very few people ever manage to do despite spending much of their lives trying.” Nightshade leaned closer, a suffering smile on her face. “I won’t have you demeaning your own work, not when it’s something so impressive.”</p><p>Olivia was taken aback, struggling to hold on to her anger while the object of it was trying to build up her self esteem. She let the fork plop down into the box limply and sat back, avoiding Nightshade’s gaze. “It was an accident. I got lucky, like I always do, only this time I thought I could actually do something. I thought I might be able to handle myself. Instead, I went two blocks up the street and should have gotten eaten by a deathclaw.”</p><p>“You act like you’re the first person to die that way. They’re called deathclaws for a reason, Olivia, and that one was being smarter than most. Even I didn’t see it until it came into the street after you. If I had seen it earlier, I would have been able to do something better. You would be running back to your rather neglectful friend and I would still be under a broken table, waiting for the perfect shot.”</p><p>As Nightshade leaned back in her own seat, Olivia turned to see her staring vacantly toward the front of the room.</p><p>“It’s funny, you know. I was lying there for hours before you came along, but the second you showed up, I knew something was about to happen. I knew that all my plans, long and short, careful and cobbled together, were about to come crashing down around me. And a part of me didn’t even mind. I was excited. I wanted to see what would happen.” Nightshade’s eyes found hers, a faint shine returning to them in the dim light. “As much as I want to hear all about how you found them and how, flat on your back, you managed to convince them just like you convinced me that there was something more to you, I’m afraid it will have to wait. We only have a few minutes to ourselves and there is something I very much want to say before those minutes are gone.”</p><p>A few minutes before what? Olivia felt panic begin to rise in her chest. “What’s going on?”</p><p>“I’m just meeting some old friends,” Nightshade said easily. “Nothing you need to worry about.”</p><p>“You’re calling me Olivia. You never do that.”</p><p>Nightshade laughed and looked teasingly at her from the corners of her eyes. “Perhaps I should. It is such a pretty name, after all.”</p><p>Ordinarily she would not have minded the use of her own name over the many pet names Nightshade had invented for her, but this was not the time or place. Nightshade should have been angry with her, not having a heart to heart talk while she looked ready to fall over from exhaustion.</p><p>“I didn’t mean to worry you,” Nightshade said, nodding toward the box in Olivia’s lap. “Go on and eat that. This is between me and some very bad people. Nothing is going to happen to you, I promise. I’ll make sure of it.”</p><p>She looked from her food to Nightshade, less worried for herself than for the invincible raider that had just threatened her life. “But -”</p><p>“Eat.” It was a command, one that Olivia obeyed, but there was none of the self-assuredness in it, none of the steel she had come to know so well in her voice. “Apologies don’t come easily to me, Olivia, and this is one I want to get right. What I said to you - I’m sorry. When the deathclaw came after you, I had to make a choice. It wasn’t even a difficult one and I think that’s what makes it so much worse. I was waiting so long for that perfect shot, had spent years perfecting the formula, gathering the ingredients, and distilling them correctly to make a single dart strong enough for what it had to kill. Years of work, gone in a span of seconds, and a part of me didn’t even mind. You walked into the street, innocent as sunrise, and I knew it was all out of my hands. As a rule I hate the feeling of helplessness, the intimate and complete loss of control, but you do make it so enticing that it’s hard to refuse.”</p><p>Olivia let the food settle in her lap, forgotten as Nightshade continued.</p><p>“I’m sorry. To say that you should have died,” Nightshade sniffed dryly, giving her a knowing look. “If anyone else had said that to you, I would have knocked them on their ass. Lucky you; you might get to see that happen to me in a minute, here. It wouldn’t be anything less than what I deserve. The truth is, Olivia, I can’t stop thinking about that moment when I saw you for the first time, lying in the dirt, flat on your back, so helpless it was almost adorable. Like a mole rat.”</p><p>The smile growing on her face began infecting Olivia’s, too. “You don’t have to make such a point of it.”</p><p>“No, but I’m choosing to. First impressions are very important.” Nightshade’s teasing smile began to mix with guilt as she spoke. “I remember looking down at you and wondering how I could use you, get a leg up on everyone else out here. That’s all I cared about. Even after that, when I was going to walk you to Diamond City, I was never going to let you go. I needed you. Something about you just nagged at me, something I couldn’t place, not until you showed up on my doorstep and told me all about how special you are. All I ever cared about was what you could do for me, what I could gain by using you. And I’m sorry for that, too.”</p><p>“That isn’t - I don’t remember it like that.” Oliiva’s protest brought another soft laugh from Nightshade’s throat as well as an indulgent look, the sort an adult would give a misguided child who didn’t quite understand. “You saved my life. You did it again when Tom wanted to sell me into slavery and again when Piper dragged me to the racetrack.”</p><p>The mention of Piper made Nightshade laugh aloud this time. “Ah, Miss Wright. One day I’ll thank her properly for putting your life in danger like that.”</p><p>“I would have thought you’d be angrier about the Nuka machine.”</p><p>“I have a growing list of grievances that the young woman will be made to answer for, don’t you worry, pet.” Nightshade took a moment to adjust her hair, which had fallen over her face as she leaned down to catch Olivia’s gaze. “It’s tragic to think I might never get the chance. If that is to be my last wish, Olivia, I want you to make that girl’s life as difficult as possible for the rest of your days.”</p><p>She liked to think that she already did as much as she could. “She’s pretty good at making it difficult for herself. I don’t know what else I could do to help.”</p><p>“I’m sure you’ll think of something. Use that famous luck of yours.”</p><p>Nightshade turned to say something more but Olivia spoke first. She had said that was her last wish. If something was coming that scared her this badly, she had to do something. “This is the tv station, right? The one you wanted me to come help with?”</p><p>Again, Nightshade laughed. “How sweet of you to remember.”</p><p>“I could help! You needed me to open a door, right?”</p><p>“That was the plan,” Nightshade said with a long sigh. “But when we first met, I told you all our plans and years of hard work would come crashing down at the echo of your footsteps. I just didn’t think mine would be among them. So, yes, this is the tv station, around which so much of my plans revolved, but those plans have changed. Now it’s just a strong building with a lot of open sight lines. I’m afraid the plan has changed, and after so many years of planning, it’s going to come down to a two minute gunfight to decide who gets to keep playing the game.”</p><p>From through the floor, the sound of gunfire began to echo, beginning with the faint pops of smaller weapons and soon building to a roar as what sounded like miniguns and sniper rifles began to join the mayhem.</p><p>Olivia turned to find Nightshade’s eyes closed, her head back against the seat. WIth loving care, she set her syringer on the seat beside her. “No use for subtlety here, I’m afraid.”</p><p>At her hip was the gleaming revolver that had killed a deathclaw, but even as she undid the clasp and slid it from its holster, her face was completely blank. There was none of the confidence Olivia had remembered from when they first met, none of the anger from when Tom’s people had shot at her, none of the eagerness from when Piper had blown up her robots at the track.</p><p>She felt her own hand go beneath her jacket to where the gun Glory had given her was still strapped. She hadn’t gotten much practice, but if she really was lucky, this was when she needed to prove it.</p><p>When she looked up, Nightshade was beaming. “What do you have there?”</p><p>Olivia hefted the gun, careful not to point it at Nightshade. She remembered that lesson at least. “Something from my new friends.”</p><p>“And here I didn’t even think to search you. Maybe they’ll make a full agent out of you, yet.” Nightshade held out her hand. “But not today, I think. I’m sorry, Olivia.”</p><p>She looked down at Nightshade’s waiting hand. “I can fight. I want to help.”</p><p>“Not this time.” Her tone was enough to get Olivia to slowly surrender her pistol. Nightshade looked relieved as she tucked it into her belt. “I promised I’d get you out of here alive, and that’s what I’m going to do. No matter what happens out there, don’t open the door for anyone but me. Stay here, stay quiet, and don’t make a sound. If you don’t have a weapon, it won’t kill you.”</p><p>“I - what are you talking about? What’s down there?”</p><p>Her answer was cut off as the building was rocked by an explosion and someone came bursting into the room outside. Ignoring Nightshade’s advice, Olivia popped up to find a woman she recognized from their time at the track. A woman in a black coat with a large sniper rifle came scampering into the room. “Nightshade!”</p><p>The raider boss stood, putting a hand on Olivia’s shoulder. “Trust me, Olivia. Please.”</p><p>She looked from Nightshade to the woman now hurrying across the main room, waiting long enough for her to reach the door and try to open it, only to find it locked. She did not look happy about that. “Boss, it’s inside. I hit it in the chest but it just shrugged it off. What’s the plan?”</p><p>Nightshade pushed gently on Olivia’s shoulder until she at last seated herself back where she had been during their conversation. Mouthing a silent thanks, she walked to the door and unlocked it before answering. “Get back to the roof, Chaser.”</p><p>“Boss, he’s inside! What the fuck am I supposed to do on the roof?”</p><p>“Let me deal with him. You kill anyone coming in behind him.” Nightshade put one finger in front of Chaser’s face as she started to argue, cutting her off completely. “Do as I say! I won’t have you dying in here because you wanted to feel special. Get up there and do what you do better than anyone in the Commonwealth.”</p><p>Chaser looked from Nightshade to Olivia and then back again. Olivia wanted to scream at her to stay and fight, to keep Nightshade safe from whatever was killing everything below them.</p><p>That was when she noticed the gunfire had all but ceased. The shots she could still hear were coming from deeper in the building, but more than anything, she could hear the faint hiss of laser fire commanding all other sounds to silence.</p><p>The others heard it, too, and with a last look of desperation, hurried off toward a nearby stairwell and pushed her way through the door. Nightshade turned one last time as she closed the door, looking Olivia in the eyes as she did. “Lock the door, and whatever happens, stay here.”</p><p>The door slammed shut. Olivia walked to it slowly, mirroring Nightshade’s own pace as she approached the center of the room. She unloaded her revolver easily and began sliding in new bullets one at a time, eyes on the double doors that led into the room. Soon, the sound of gunfire completely died, and Olivia was left alone with her heart hammering in her ears.</p><p>It wasn’t until those far doors opened that, with trembling fingers, she turned the latch to lock the door.</p><p> </p><p>Wind rushed past her at a deafening roar, blowing her hair everywhere and making it hard to see the amazing view outside as Nat soared through the air. If the engines were right above her and making so much noise, everyone would have heard her laughing as the vertibird rose high above the Commonwealth streets.</p><p>Turning to Haylen, she pointed excitedly toward Diamond City. They were even higher than the wall! This was amazing!</p><p>Haylen, seeing her right up against the open door, ruined her fun by grabbing her underneath the arms and pulling her away. “Nope! Not having you fall out like this! Sit down! Buckle up!”</p><p>Nat begrudgingly allowed herself to be hoisted into one of the seats and a pair of crisscrossing bright yellow straps to be tightened across her chest. Big Green had been clinging to the floor beside her but now scuttled up the wall to perch on the next seat over. Haylen gave him a look and laughed but did not tighten the straps on his seat.</p><p>“Where are we going?!” Nat shouted over the noise.</p><p>“Too many raiders in those streets, kid! We’re taking you home!”</p><p>“What?!” Nat began fumbling at the straps but they were stuck together with a big metal clasp that didn’t want to let go. “My sister is still out there! You said you’d help!”</p><p>Big Green fluttered his wings and looked menacing in agreement. Haylen came closer and grabbed her hands, pulling them away from the metal clasp gently but firmly. “No touching that! I’ll keep looking for her, I promise! But we have to get you home! It’s too hot out here for a kid right now!”</p><p>“Too hot?!” What did that even mean?</p><p>“Scribe!” The man in the front of the vertibird shouted over his shoulder.</p><p>“What is it, pilot?!”</p><p>“I need you up here!”</p><p>Haylen pointed at her threateningly but gave her a kind smile before turning away. It was enough that Nat just sulked in her seat instead of trying to escape. She looked over to Big Green and shook her head. They had tried, at least. After her encounter with the super mutants she was beginning to realize she might not be ready to explore the world on her own. She needed to train more. Maybe Nora could help her with that.</p><p>Or Haylen. She seemed like she knew what she was doing.</p><p>She was now perched up on a small metal shelf that let her peek into the glass cockpit. The man in the front was shouting and pointing, saying something that was lost as the vertibird abruptly turned to the left, banking sideways in a way that made Nat shriek in unexpected joy.</p><p>“What do you mean, weird signal?!” Haylen shouted back.</p><p>“Weird means weird, scribe!” the man called back. “Command wants you to check it out! The rest of your squad is en route!”</p><p>“We were supposed to be dropping off this kid! What am I supposed to do with her, leave her buckled in and hope nothing comes by?!”</p><p>“Should have thought of that before you adopted her! If you ask me, we should just dump her out here! Nobody has to know!”</p><p>Big Green heard it, too, and hopped over onto her lap protectively. Haylen didn’t turn around and continued to yell at the man but Nat was already looking for a way out. Only, there wasn’t a way out. She was a hundred feet in the air! If they decided to throw her out, she would have to hope Big Green could carry her and he wasn’t that big.</p><p>As she struggled in her seat, she started looking around at where they were flying. Diamond City was to her right, so that meant they were going away from Goodneighbor, right? She thought that was right. Unless they were on the other side. How lost had she gotten? She had never seen any of these buildings before. There were skyscrapers with weird names, a bunch of collapsed bridges, but nothing she recognized.</p><p>She thought she saw something to the left before the pilot turned toward it, like a big tower of metal with some dishes on it. It had a really big sign on the side in all blue and white. Galaxy News Network?</p><p>Haylen came back into the main part of the vertibird and put one hand on Nat’s shoulder. “Okay, kid, listen up! I have to go check out something strange on the ground! There’s not supposed to be anything around here, so it should be in and out real quick! Our pilot is going to get us close and then I’ll come back! Could be whoever took your sister!”</p><p>Nat nodded and shouted back “Can I come with?!”</p><p>“Could be dangerous! You sure you’re up for it, recruit?!” She directed the question at Big Green rather than her, smiling as she did. “I’d feel better with you in the air rather than on the ground, but I won’t say no to some backup!”</p><p>Big Green shuffled but whatever noises he was making were lost in the din. She took that for a yes. “Okay!”</p><p>The sound of glass shattering was followed by the sharp <i>BANG</i> of metal punching through metal. She had heard that sound before, when Security had been chasing someone in the market and one of their bullets had come through the wall over her bed.</p><p>Haylen pitched to the side, shouting as the whole world lurched forward. “Shit! Pilot, what happened?!”</p><p>Nat tried to grab her as she fell but her arms were too short. Big Green clamped down tighter and folded his wings back. Haylen managed to pull herself up and look into the cockpit before the vertibird began to turn.</p><p>“Shit! Man down! Mayday! Mayday! This is Scribe Haylen on VF-19! We are hit and - “</p><p>The world was spinning, now, faster and faster until Nat thought for sure she would be thrown out. Big Green, clinging to her legs for dear life, was eventually thrown free of her legs and went shooting through the far door like a rock out of a slingshot, not even opening his wings as he fell. Haylen was clinging desperately to the metal frame between her and the cockpit but had stopped shouting at the radio.</p><p>Nat felt herself pushing hard against the straps and clung as hard as she could to the yellow metal bars on either side of the seat. She wanted to scream but was afraid to open her mouth and let all her insides come flying out.</p><p>As the spinning grew too intense, her eyes closed on their own and she put her head down, hearing Haylen shouting at her over the noise. “Hold on, kid!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Gardener</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nightshade confronts someone from her past</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Olivia crouched in the back room, poking her head up just far enough to peer through the window and into the room beyond. Over the broken terminals and inactive monitors, under the still-working lights of the massive newsroom, she waited to see what could frighten a woman who killed deathclaws without missing a step.</p><p>The figure who passed through the far doors was not what she expected. The laser rifle he carried looked different than the ones she had seen lying around Diamond City, with a brightly colored barrel and a white plastic casing that made it look like a pre-war children’s toy. His hands were gloved in black leather to match his trench coat, the shoulders of which were padded and ridged in a way that somehow looked more militant than combat armor. All he carried with him seemed to be a strange belt, a small satchel hanging from the side, and a few yellow cylinders on his hip that were probably batteries for his rifle.</p><p>She expected him to die right there, walking in on Nightshade without a care in the world, but he didn’t. He stopped, looking slowly around the room, his gaze passing over Olivia just as she ducked below the window.</p><p>Had he seen her? Safely behind the wall, she crawled away from the door and closer to where Nightshade might be hiding. It wasn’t like she could do anything with the wall in her way but something told her she had to move. She didn’t trust this thing not to hurt her, no matter what Nightshade had promised.</p><p>“I know you are in here,” the voice continued, this time louder, projected through the room to wherever Nightshade had hidden herself. “You cannot escape. Your interference has been tolerated for long enough. You are to be brought to the Institute and you will answer for what you have done. Surrender yourself immediately.”</p><p>Nothing happened. Olivia dared to peek over the lip of the wall and found the man staring right at her, rifle leveled at her head. “You have been identified as a person of interest in -”</p><p>She yelped and dropped to the floor but instead of a laser blast over her head, she heard the sharp bark of a revolver followed by a strange, hollow sound, like a baseball crashing into a catcher’s mitt. Two more barks followed with the last shattering the windows of the room across from her own. A moment later, laser fire snapped back, Olivia’s room brightening with blue light as it hissed and cracked away from her.</p><p>Again she peeked into the far room. She still couldn’t see Nightshade but a bank of terminals on the far wall had been melted away, the edges of their plastic casings still glowing a weird orange as the circuits inside them sparked and died. A black blur on her left was the only thing she saw of the strange man as he dove between tables. Even that was almost too slow as another loud bang echoed in the room and Nightshade blew the back off an unfortunate rolling chair, sending it spinning before it toppled sadly onto its side, wheels spinning feebly in the air.</p><p>More laser fire lit up the room but Olivia could not even see the beams. The far wall sparked and turned black as Nightshade, appearing at last, vaulted one of the tables before hopping up on a second, pivoting in midair before firing twice at something on the far side of the room. This time Olivia heard the grunt of pain and she let out a quiet whoop like she was watching a game of tennis.</p><p>Nightshade dropped elegantly off the table and Olivia caught sight of her emptying the revolver’s chamber as she fell. She waited for her to stand up and come get her but soon enough more laser blasts snapped their way across the room. How was he not dead? She had just seen one shot from that thing kill a deathclaw.</p><p>“You are delaying the inevitable,” the emotionless voice said as the duel came to a stop. “And you are wasting precious Institute resources in this pointless combat.”</p><p>Now Nightshade did answer. “Tell me something, since I have you all to myself, did they tell you what happened to the last one or did you think this was your special chance? I’m asking for your sake, so that when I kill you at least you’ll know it wasn’t your fault.”</p><p>“Your confidence is misplaced.” More laser fire crackled overhead, these ones angled unsettlingly close to her window. “You are misguided, your feelings confused. You will come with me. I have been authorized to use force if necessary. You should surrender and save yourself unnecessary pain. Further resistance is not advised.”</p><p>The revolver made her feelings clear on that point and the man was again sent running, this time back the way he had come. He came barreling around a corner and toward Olivia’s window at a dead run, Nightshade’s shots bursting in showers of sparks as terminals and video equipment sprouted mortal wounds. Olivia, seeing the man coming, yelped and scrambled back toward the door.</p><p>More gunshots, these ones coming close together in an almost frantic pace before Nightshade barked in surprise. “Olivia! Move!”</p><p>She tried but the man was faster. Laser fire melted half the window away before the other half came crashing in, showering the room in glass. Olivia managed to get to her feet and rush the door, fumbling with the lock until it clicked and pushing her way out. She kept her head down and started toward the other room.</p><p>Suddenly she was moving the wrong way. Jerked backward by her throat, she nearly went to the floor as the man caught her by her jacket, yanking her back into the doorway. She crashed against the man’s chest and, before she could so much as yelp, she felt an arm around her, holding her with an impossibly strong grip as he pressed something very uncomfortably under her ribs.</p><p>Her hands went up to the arm around her neck but knew there was nothing she could do. She thought about biting him or trying to grab for something sensitive but even those scattered thoughts took too long.</p><p>Nightshade was already on her feet and coming around one of the far tables. Olivia saw her eyes go wide and that familiar revolver come up, barrel pointed right at her head.</p><p>But Nightshade hesitated.</p><p>The man did not. The laser rifle came away from her ribs long enough to crackle once, the blue light slamming into Nightshade’s chest with an awful snap. Olivia screamed at the same time. “No!”</p><p>Nightshade screamed and fell behind a table, out of sight and away from more fire. Olivia felt the man start to push her forward but she was not about to go quietly. She thrashed against him, clawing at his skin and drawing red lines across it but he didn’t even seem to feel it. Stamping down on his feet only made him lift her up painfully as she was pushed forward, still struggling against the iron grip.</p><p>“One of our agents informed us of your weakness for this girl,” the man said as they rounded the table and caught sight of Nightshade. She was still holding her gun, pointing it up at the man and grimacing in pain.</p><p>Nightshade growled in response. “FIghting dirty, huh? Should have guessed. That’s the only way you bastards win. Come on, put her down and help me up. Let’s see how you Coursers do in a real fight.”</p><p>Olivia tried to thrash to one side but could barely move more than her head from side to side. “Shoot him! Forget me, just shoot him!”</p><p>“It will not,” the Courser said, Nightshade groaning as he did. “It is confused. A creature that values its own life would shoot and, at this range, could kill me. But it does not want to risk harming you. It is a foolish sentiment. Do not worry. I am here to take your confusion and make it alright.”</p><p>Nightshade was breathing between gritted teeth, staring pure hate over Olivia’s shoulder, but her eyes flicked just to the side enough for them to meet with hers. She tried to smile. “I’m sorry, Olivia.”</p><p>Then the man spoke, and Nightshade closed her eyes. “R9-32, initialize factory reset. Authorization code gardener.”</p><p>Nightshade’s arm slowly lowered, the gun slipping from her grasp. Her eyes remained closed, the lids flickering as though she were only dreaming. The laser rifle that had been pressed to Olivia’s side fell away. Neither the Courser nor Nightshade moved or made so much as a sound. The room was filled only with the sound of sparking computer terminals and the deep, metallic groaning of the building’s ancient insides. Only Olivia and her frantic breathing disturbed the peace.</p><p>“What did you do? What - let me go!” Olivia thrashed, pushing against the man’s arm until at last he let her fall to her knees beside Nightshade. “Hey, Nightshade. Come on, get up. Come on.”</p><p>Her eyes flickered open, but it wasn’t Nightshade who spoke. It was hollow, emotionless, and as robotic as the man who had killed her. “This unit has been damaged. Please contact a repair technician at your earliest convenience.”</p><p>Olivia’s eyes widened in horror as tears began to blur her vision. It didn’t even sound like her. “What the fuck did you do?!”</p><p>The man did not even flinch. “I have reset it to factory standards. It was confused and had become a danger to those around it.”</p><p>“What are you talking about?!”</p><p>“This synth has experienced a defective growth in personality. It will be returned to the Institute for repair.” The man walked over to where Olivia had fallen and grabbed her by the arm. “Your assistance was appreciated.”</p><p>She punched him in the arm as hard as she could, hard enough to make her knuckles crack, but it was like hitting a brick wall. She tried again but all it did was make her hand feel like it would break and the pain of it made her stop. She should have been able to hurt him. Blood leaked from the wounds in his chest and a massive gash had appeared on his forehead, scarring above the eye and carving through the hair above his ear. Nightshade had done so much to him and she couldn’t even make him flinch.</p><p>“Do not resist and you will not be harmed. I must return to the Institute. Stand aside.”</p><p>She kicked him in one of the wounds on his leg, knocking herself off balance when he turned it aside while barely moving. “Fuck you!”</p><p>The laser rifle came up to point at her chest. “This is your last -”</p><p>The door at the far end of the room banged open. “Blue, I - oh, fuck!”</p><p>Olivia spun, as did the man, releasing his grip on arm. “Piper, run!”</p><p>Piper didn’t run. Her pistol came up as Olivia dropped to the ground where she watched as the man’s head sparked as she landed two clean shots on his forehead. He didn’t even flinch. “Piper Wright. You are a person of interest -”</p><p>Another shot thudded into his shoulder. “Come here and show me your fucking interest, you scrap-brained factory reject!”</p><p>More gunfire punctuated the insults as the man turned and started striding toward Piper. Olivia crawled to Nightshade’s side as more laser fire lit up the room. “Hey. Nightshade. Come on, get up. I know you’re in there.”</p><p>“This unit has been damaged. Please contact a repair technician at your earliest convenience.”</p><p>Olivia felt herself duck instinctively as more gunfire began blowing up the terminals around her. She still didn’t move. Nightshade’s eyes stared up at the ceiling blankly, not even acknowledging her as she knelt over her. There had to be something she could do. She couldn’t just be gone.</p><p>Piper cried out as something on the far side of the room exploded. “Gotta get those sensors calibrated, buddy! You’re all over the place! Thinkin about a pretty refrigerator back home?”</p><p>“Your mockery will do you no good.”</p><p>“Sounds like I touched a nerve! Maybe a loose circuit? Looks like you’ve got plenty, you over-engineered toaster oven!”</p><p>Olivia grabbed Nightshade’s shoulders and shook. “Come on, come on. Uh. Activate. Wake up. Start. Abort reset.”</p><p>Those dull eyes snapped to her with mechanical precision as the laser fire abruptly stopped. The Courser had heard her, too. “I warned you not to interfere with Institute affairs. Desist immediately.”</p><p>She did not need to look behind her to know he had turned back around and was coming for her. Piper knew it, too, and started shouting louder. “Look at me when I’m insulting you, you chrome-plated toilet se-!”</p><p>Another laser blast cut off Piper’s tirade with a sharp cry of pain. The footsteps grew louder as she shook Nightshade harder, grabbing her by the shoulders. “Abort reset. Abort! Uh. R - R9-32 abort reset -”</p><p>The man grabbed her by the collar and she watched the ground get further away as she was hauled to her feet, a laser rifle pointed at her face. “Do not -”</p><p>Another bullet caught him between the shoulder blades and sent him reeling, giving Olivia enough air to shout “Authorization code gardener!”</p><p>The man recovered his feet and grabbed Olivia by the throat. “You were warned.”</p><p>“So were you.”</p><p>The Courser turned just as a fist caught him square in the face and sent him flying over the next table, sprawling on the ground in a heap as Nightshade, awake and angrier than she had ever seen her, stalked after him.</p><p>From the other side of the table came the sound of scrambling and the man’s still-passive voice. “R9-32 initialize factory -”</p><p>Nightshade leapt the table, kicking the laser rifle free, ducking beneath a swing of the man’s fist and punching him in the throat hard enough to send him sprawling again. “That is not my name.”</p><p>The Courser staggered back, ducking under Nightshade’s next swing and bringing his own fist up to connect with where the laser blast had hit her. The first blow staggered her, the second made her scream, and the third put her down on one knee.</p><p>“Resistance is futile. You will comply. You will return.”</p><p>Nightshade brought her arm down to stop the next swing and punched forward into the Courser’s midsection before headbutting him hard enough to send him staggering backward. “Come here and make me.”</p><p>Olivia scrambled along the floor looking for anything she could do to help. She couldn’t let him speak. If he got her to shut down again, that was it. He would come for her and Piper next and they wouldn’t be able to stop him, and that was if he didn’t just kill Nightshade as soon as she was down. She had to do something. She had to make noise.</p><p>“R9-32, initialize -”</p><p>The whole station lurched to the side as something big crashed into the roof. Olivia looked up in time to see a vertibird’s rotor come bursting through the ceiling and smash through the wall just above where Piper was hiding. The engine was still burning and between that deafening roar and the sound of the rotors biting into steel beams it was more than enough for Olivia to cover her ears to stop the pain.</p><p>Neither the Courser nor Nightshade stopped to notice. The Courser had landed a hit on Nightshade and had darted beneath a table to find his laser rifle. Nightshade leapt onto a nearby bank of monitors bolted into a metal frame and, backlit by the bolts of blue lightning, started running along the top toward the Courser.</p><p>Watching her run, Olivia nearly missed the Courser turning its rifle on her. She must have lost a good chunk of her hair as she scrambled frantically behind cover, the smell of burning ozone in her nostrils, and began crawling on hands and knees to the next bit of safety she could find. Overhead, the vertibird continued to grind slowly into the roof, the cockpit now coming into view as it slowly pushed away bits of loose concrete. Leaning over the slumped pilot was a woman with a red cap and blood on her face frantically flicking switches. Olivia tried waving to get her attention but she wasn’t looking at the battle happening below her. Her only concern was her bird and with not bringing the whole building down around the occupants.</p><p>As the engine switched off, Olivia darted to the next row of terminals. There had to be something!</p><p> </p><p>The Courser had managed to kick Nightshade in the chest and brought his rifle around, blue fire snapping through the air and connecting with a chair Nightshade had picked up and was now using as shield as she charged him. The Courser tried to kick her again and take out her legs but Nightshade was quicker, leaping onto a table and smashing what was left of the burning chair over his head.</p><p>From the ground, the Courser groaned. “R9-32, initialize factory reset.”</p><p>Nightshade kicked it in the ribs but was sent stumbling back as it caught her leg and tossed her to the side. She had hardly regained her balance when it lashed out again, this time catching her in the left leg just below the hip, knocking her back into a row of terminals and staggering her.</p><p>The desk in front of Olivia held a bank of video equipment, audio mixers, and big buttons that still shone with light. Over one big, red button was a faded note that read “End of the World.”</p><p>“Authorization code -”</p><p>Olivia hit the button.</p><p>The room burst alive with multicolored light, each monitor changing from red to blue to green to every color imaginable, all in different hues at different times. It was blindingly brilliant, but it was the song that told her the note was not to cause the end of the world, but to celebrate it. Blaring from every speaker in the room came the unmistakable strains of Caramelldansen.</p><p>
  <i>Dance to the beat!<br/>Wave your hands together!<br/>Come feel the heat,<br/>Forever and forever!</i>
</p><p>The sound was loud enough to deafen Olivia but it was more than enough to drown out the Courser. Nightshade whipped out Olivia’s pistol and began firing it faster than even Glory had shown her, each shot making a wet, sickening splat as it connected with the Courser’s throat. It shuddered under the hail of bullets, bringing its arm up to block its exposed skin. Nightshade just aimed higher. Red blossoms appeared on its lips, cheeks, nose, and forehead as Nightshade fired until the gun clicked in protest.</p><p>By then, she had closed the distance anyway. Blood splattered the floor as the Couser coughed and said something that was lost in the din. It came toward Nightshade again, still speaking but moving sluggishly and its fist went over Nightshade’s head as she lunged forward into its chest, shouldering it high into the air and launching it over a bank of monitors.</p><p>The Courser managed to regain its footing just as Nightshade vaulted the table, taking another swing as she landed beside him. This time, she caught his arm beneath her own and wrenched the bones so painfully that Olivia could feel her own body protesting at the sight of it. Its other fist connected with her jaw but she just shoved him away, wiping one hand across her chin before coming after him again.</p><p>One arm now hanging limply at its side, the Courser was still speaking when Nightshade did something to its legs and it went slamming down to the floor, hidden behind an overturned table except for its black-clad legs.</p><p>She lost sight of Nightshade as she straddled the Courser’s body and the sound of fists connecting with flesh echoed throughout the room. All Olivia could see was those legs twitching with every sickening impact.</p><p>
  <i>Wham! Wham! Wham!</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Crunch!</i>
</p><p>The legs stopped twitching.</p><p>Whatever the end of the world plans had been, the song continued to play as Nightshade rose, still furious, hair a mess and her arm covered in blood. Olivia slowly rose to her feet, peering over the monitors as Nightshade looked down at the thing she had just killed. Still waiting for the thing to get back up, she fumbled with the buttons on the console until the music stopped playing, the monitors returning to their dead black.</p><p>The world returned to its raw, apocalyptic state, with shattered glass, burning electronics, and the heavy breathing of those still alive. Sunlight leaked in from where the ceiling had fallen in, glowing a strange orange as it mixed with falling dust. It all must have looked very strange from the exposed cockpit but Olivia’s eyes were fixed on the woman standing in the middle of the room, not the one overlooking it.</p><p>“Nightshade?”</p><p>She probably didn’t hear her name being said, but she soon turned to Olivia all the same. The expression on her face was harsh, fitting for someone who had just beaten someone to death with her bare hands, and her eyes latched onto Olivia’s with an intensity that terrified her. Without saying a word and without changing her expression, she started marching toward her.</p><p>“Wait.” There were not many tables between them and Olivia found herself quickly backed against the wall. “Wait, I - I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for him to grab me!”</p><p>Nightshade said nothing, just rounded the last of the tables standing between them and kept on coming until she was on top of Olivia, one hand grabbing the front of her shirt violently.</p><p>“I didn’t know what would happen!” Olivia yelped as she was lifted off the floor and shoved against the wall, her legs knocking painfully against the desk beneath her. “Please don’t -”</p><p>Her next words were cut off, and all the sound she could manage was a confused and muffled “Mmmph!” as Nightshade pressed her against the wall and kissed her.</p><p>The noise repeated a few more times, confused complaints fading to happy acceptance and silent reciprocation, the pain of being pressed against the wall disappearing as her body realized it was not all that important. Olivia was not a very bright girl, but she soon realized the rest of the world was just as unimportant as that pain, and so it was left to fade from sight, vanishing behind lidded eyes as she let herself rest against the table that had somehow gotten beneath her. She remained vaguely aware of her hands, her fingers brushing against Nightshade’s bare skin, no longer holding to her arm for dear life. They were left to explore this darkened world alone, finding tense muscles and ripped fabric before settling against her hips.</p><p>From across the room, some part of her heard Piper scrambling to her feet. “What the hell was that? Blue? You still alive in there? Hey, what gives, are you - oh, for fuck’s sake.”</p><p>It only lasted a moment, but when Nightshade pulled away, all the air in Olivia’s lungs went with her. She sat there, blinking dumbly and trying to find her breath as Nightshade’s hand gently adjusted the shirt she had just handled so roughly.</p><p>“Thank you,” Nightshade murmured as she pulled away.</p><p>Olivia, still reeling, managed to at least make some noise. “Uh huh.”</p><p>Nightshade lowered her head, sighing and drawing Olivia’s gaze down with her. She had not been expecting this but, now that it had happened once, she was not opposed to it happening again. “Saving a synth from a Courser; pretty good work for a new agent.”</p><p>“Right. That wasn’t so hard. I don’t know what all the fuss was about.” Nightshade laughed quietly, shaking her head as Olivia pressed her forehead against hers.</p><p>Nightshade tilted her head just slightly, catching Olivia’s eyes. “Does it bother you?”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“That I’m a synth.”</p><p>Still new to this strange future, Olivia was not even sure what a synth was, but at the moment she was not entirely sure why that would matter. “You seem nice enough to me.”</p><p>It might not have been the right thing, but it did make her laugh. “I don’t think anyone’s ever called me that before, princess.”</p><p>From across the room came the sound of things being pushed off tables and the annoyed grumbling of a neglected journalist. “Let’s just ignore the crashed vertibird, shall we? Hey, up there! You alright? No? Okay. You definitely don’t look good. You’ve got a… thing. On your face. Don’t get up, we’ll come to you. Unless the ceiling falls in. Then you’ll come to us.”</p><p>Nightshade pressed the shirt against her chest, smoothing out the wrinkles and chuckling softly. “Your friend seems very worried about you.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Olivia said quietly, giving her an annoyed look. “She should be. She’s the one who got me into this.”</p><p>“Then you should tell her it’s a good thing I came out so much richer for it, otherwise I might have words with her.” Nightshade ran her hand up to her shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze, and for the first time Olivia noticed her other hand was covered up to her elbow in blood. Nightshade followed her eyes, turning her hand over in the light as though seeing it for the first time.</p><p>Olivia looked up in shock. “You’re hurt.”</p><p>“Nothing a stimpack won’t take care of.” Nightshade backed away, turning to hide her bloody arm from Olivia as if suddenly ashamed of it. “But I should clean some of this up.”</p><p>“Nightshade -”</p><p>“Go.” Nightshade smiled but still did not look her in the eyes for long and was still turned sideways to hide the worst of the blood from her. “I’m alright, pet, I promise. Now, please go entertain her before she breaks something. I don’t think she does well when she’s not the center of attention, and this building is in no condition to handle one of her tantrums.”</p><p>With a smile that was not entirely forced, Olivia watched as Nightshade went back to where she had killed the Courser and began to kneel over the body. Whether she was cleaning herself off or just making sure it wouldn’t get back up, Olivia did not want to know, and she slowly pushed herself off the table and made her way across the room to where Piper was standing.</p><p>The reporter, still in her coat and cap, was fiddling with a burn on her arm and was looking decidedly annoyed. “Figures. I come back and find you tongue-wrestling the woman who kidnapped you. Honestly, I don’t know why I worry about you. Should just let you loose in the Wasteland, let you kiss your way to peace in our time.”</p><p>Olivia approached quietly, just smiled and watched as Piper folded her arms unhappily.</p><p>It took a long moment, but eventually Piper rolled her eyes. “Oh, fine, come here.”</p><p>She let Piper come forward and wrap her in a tight hug that Olivia very happily returned. “I’m really glad you’re here.”</p><p>“Yeah, whatever, just don’t make a habit of it, you dope.” Piper gave her a hard squeeze before letting her go and looking her over. “You’re going to pay me back by telling me the whole story, you know.”</p><p>“It’s a lot of me being confused and lost and other people kidnapping me, but sure, I’ll fill you in on all the gory details. How did you even know I was here?”</p><p>“I know everything about everyone, Blue. It’s my job.” Piper put her hands up and pushed Olivia gently on the shoulders. “Don’t believe me, huh? Fine. I didn’t. I came here to start my own show.”</p><p>“Of course you did.” It never failed to make her laugh, the way Piper talked with her hands when she got excited, and even now was no exception. Her laughter came out sincere but sounded as exhausted as she felt. “But, really, you are going to tell me.”</p><p>“In excruciating detail.” Piper waited until Olivia had finished giggling to bring her in for another hug. “And I will never, ever ask you to leave that stupid basement of yours ever again. I am so sorry for ever doubting you, you belong in your hole in the ground with no one but your radroach and your boilers.”</p><p>“You know just what to say to me.”</p><p>“LIV!”</p><p>Both Olivia and Piper spun toward the door. That was Nat’s voice!</p><p>From over Piper’s shoulder, Olivia had just enough time to see the pair of rockets emerging from the doorway, one a bright green, the other a pink and blue streak that crashed into Piper’s legs just as she managed to turn around.</p><p>“What are you doing out here?!” Olivia and Piper shouted it at once, but while Olivia’s cries were of disbelief, Piper’s were of pure rage.</p><p>Nat didn’t seem to care. “I came looking for you!”</p><p>“You came - me or her?!” Piper bent to pick Nat up and wrap her in a hug that made Nat look closer to three than thirteen.</p><p>“Liv! You said she got kidnapped and -”</p><p>Piper’s hug now turned homicidal. “You left the city? After I told you to stay put, you still came here on your own? And - did you - you crashed that vertibird, didn’t you?! You tell me what you’ve been doing right now!”</p><p>Olivia was, luckily for her, distracted by the attentions of Big Green, who was chittering angrily and scuttling up and down her leg, and so was not involved when Piper began interrogating Nat. “Hey, come on buddy. I’m alright. Just a little - wait, you’re just looking for food aren’t you? You’re the worst pet I’ve ever had, you know that?”</p><p>Big Green chittered angrily but eventually scuttled up to her back and latched himself on in his usual way. She really needed more normal friends.</p><p>That was when she noticed the other woman standing in the door. A young woman wearing a red hat with goggles above the brim and brown body armor over a red flight suit looked dazed and bloodied but was still standing. She gave Olivia a small wave and walked over slowly to join the group.</p><p>“That was actually my vertibird, ma’am. Sorry for the dramatic entrance. Is this your sister?”</p><p>Piper, having been surprised too many times in the last five minutes, stared mutely as her brain struggled to catch up and left Nat to answer for her. “Yeah! This is Piper. But she wasn’t the one who got kidnapped. That was Olivia. She’s like my older sister, but way older.”</p><p>“Hey! I’m not that old.”</p><p>The new arrival gave Olivia the look the comment deserved but shrugged it off, which was very kind of her. Piper eventually recovered her wits long enough to ask “You found my little sister?”</p><p>“We were in the area. She was taking on a gang of super mutants by herself but by the time we got there, she had things in hand. That was when she started talking about a kidnapped sibling and I decided to lend a hand. You can call me Haylen. Scribe Haylen, Brotherhood of Steel. Are you alright, ma’am? You look a little shaken.”</p><p>Haylen came forward and began looking Piper over, examining the spot where the Courser had hit her and poking gently at the skin beneath the trench coat. “Super mutants. You were - ow! Oh. That. That’s nothing. I’m fine,” Piper stammered.</p><p>“I have some extra stims in my bag, ma’am. Looks like the last one didn’t quite take. Here, let me.” Haylen produced a stimpack, holding out Piper’s arm as she continued to stumble over herself. “You can hold my hand if you’re afraid of needles.”</p><p>Olivia rolled her eyes and looked down at Nat who was much more entertained by Piper’s sudden discomfort than she should have been. And they said she was lucky. Piper gets a vertibird crashed on top of her and who falls out of it but her little sister and a very pretty medic who is very concerned for her wellbeing.</p><p>She turned back to the rest of the room, suddenly realizing she hadn’t even offered to help bandage Nightshade’s hands. They had looked awful.</p><p>She found herself standing in an empty room. Already knowing she was gone, she still walked over to the back rooms and peered through the shattered glass, hoping to see Nightshade resting in one of the chairs. There was nothing to see; even her syringer was gone. Looking through the rest of the room, she found only the dead Courser, its head smashed in a way that would probably put her off red meat for life, and the fire exit at the back hanging open just enough to mark her passing.</p><p>Across the room, the sounds of Piper grilling Nat and Haylen’s pleasant laughter slowly drew Olivia away from the silent stairwell. She shouldn’t have been worried. Nightshade knew how to take care of herself, and if she wanted to see Olivia again, she knew how to find her. She returned to Piper’s side, catching her attention just as Nat started excitedly asking Haylen if they were going to fly back to Diamond City.</p><p>Piper raised an eyebrow. “So?”</p><p>“So what?”</p><p>“Are you a raider now?”</p><p>Olivia smirked. “You know it. I’d shake you down for caps but I already know you’re broke, so you get off easy today, Wright.”</p><p>“Your mercy is the stuff of legend.” Piper put an arm around her, pulling her into a side hug and turning them both toward the main door, away from where Nightshade had disappeared. “Come on, killer, let’s get you home.”</p><p> </p><p>Nightshade stood outside the tv station’s fire exit and leaned against the wall. The street outside was quiet, the only sounds the occasional protests of the insulted building and the crackling fires of burning cars that had gone up when the Courser had made its dramatic entrance. She could see the bodies of her raiders lining the sidewalk and had no desire to go counting corpses at the entrance. They were all dead, and those that weren’t would probably take the opportunity to retire.</p><p>All things considered, things could have gone better.</p><p>She resisted the urge to fall to her knees, to slump down against the wall and scream until her lungs gave out. So many years of work had gone into those few minutes. They never should have happened, but when Olivia was involved, things that shouldn’t happen in a million years seemed to happen all the time.</p><p>The girl deserved an explanation almost as much as she deserved a goodbye. She told herself that it was safer this way, that the Coursers would be coming for her and that Olivia would just get herself hurt if she stuck around. They already knew about her and were willing to use her to get to their real target, so it just made sense for her to disappear. It wasn’t like she was leaving her in poor company. Piper Wright was someone who, if nothing else, seemed capable of taking care of her, or at least entertaining her sufficiently until Nightshade came back to claim her.</p><p>That had a nice ring to it, and she allowed herself a smile as she decided that was how it was going to be. She would loan Olivia to the dear reporter, but she would be back to check on her before long, so she had better take good care of her.</p><p>Sneakers squeaking against metal rungs made Nightshade chuckle as Chaser made her way carefully down an old ladder that led down from the roof. She was favoring her left arm, which was a bad sign, but still had her sniper rifle slung over her shoulder. Getting her to part with that thing would have taken the end of the world, but given what she had just lived through, she would have been entitled to a drastic career change if she chose it.</p><p>She was still weighing the odds of her best sharpshooter just walking away into the sunset when Chaser walked almost drunkenly to the edge of the building to join her. The girl’s eyes were dazed but lucid enough for her to check around the corner before speaking. “What was that thing, boss?”</p><p>“They’re called Coursers.” There was no point in hiding the truth anymore. She was not about to admit she was a synth, of course, spilling a secret meant only for Olivia and herself, but it was about time her people learned who they were fighting. “The Institute sends them out to solve problems. They’re aren’t many out there, and they’re harder to kill than a deathclaw on psycho.”</p><p>She held up her bloody fist for Chaser to see and the girl’s eyes widened. “Shit.”</p><p>Nightshade tilted her head curiously. “You never did ask who we were fighting, did you, Chaser? Odds and Ends complained, Busboy asked around, even Violet came to me once to ask about it, but you never did; not until now. Why is that?”</p><p>“Didn’t care,” Chaser said with a shrug. “You seem like the best chance at surviving around here and as long as I’m with you I get to shoot people from a thousand yards away. There’s a rush when you see someone in your scope and you just know there’s not a damn thing they can do. Making a shot like that? It’s like playing God. Point me at whoever you want, boss, I just want to spend this life I’ve got living.”</p><p>It was an honest answer, from what she could tell, and it made some deeper part of Nightshade smile. “I knew I liked you.”</p><p>Chaser smirked. “So, what’s the plan?”</p><p>Nightshade took a few lazy steps forward, passing out of the building’s shadow and into the afternoon light. Her bloody hand was still throbbing with agony from crushing the Courser’s reinforced skull and she would need to endure the sweet suffering of setting bones with a stimpack soon enough, but first she would savor this victory. It had been hard earned, but it had been the only way. This was the only fight that mattered.</p><p>She opened her hand and let the light shine on a small chip, no bigger than her thumb, bits of synthetic brain still clinging to the access ports.</p><p>“We find you someone to shoot.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Three's Company</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nora returns to Diamond City, disturbing the peace and taking Piper out of town again. Elsewhere, Scribe Haylen endures yet another vertibird crash.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Piper had seen a lot of Old West films in her time. They had a kind of magnetism about them, a sort of draw that Piper could attribute to the image of a lonely hero in a nice hat. Standing up against the outlaws was something she often did on the page as opposed to on the main road through town, but it did not stop her from imagining herself as a kind of idealistic gunslinger with a six-shooter on her hip.</p><p>It was times like these, however, that forced her to admit that Diamond City was not the town but the local saloon visited by all of Boston’s ne’er-do-wells and that she was not the sheriff but a gossipy patron most people wished would just go home. What forced her to admit this was not a sudden onset of self-awareness but the discomfort that came from staring the truth in the face and noticing the really big gun in its hands.</p><p>Nora came through the gates of Diamond City wearing no hat and riding no horse but their absence made no difference. Her footsteps threatened to break the metal staircase, its rusted bolts complaining loudly at the affections a two-ton machine-woman hybrid could provide. It was a model Piper had never seen before, sporting camouflage patterns that did not quite mesh with the surroundings, and on the back were two big tanks that Piper knew from posters could start spewing fire and launch the wearer into the skies.</p><p>Any Diamond City resident unfortunate enough to be using the stairs quickly found their way to the side, sometimes hopping awkwardly over the railing in order to avoid the oncoming bad news. Piper, no stranger to bad news, remained on her doorstep and watched the expressionless faceplate come closer. This had been her favorite scenario to mull over as she laid awake in bed, determined to avoid sleep by imagining things that infuriated her. She had imagined a thousand ways to chastise the walking tank upon her return. Olivia had nearly been killed by a deathclaw, a raider gang with more members than Diamond City Security, and then an Institute killbot. The fact that the raider gang leader had actually saved her from the deathclaw and subsequently slobbered all over the girl’s face was something she intended to leave out. Nat had almost gotten killed by super mutants!</p><p>But it was much easier to be angry with the imagined version of Nora. The real version weighed considerably more, had a lot more guns and bombs on hand, and could punch her through the wall even without the help of power armor.</p><p>That faceplate soon loomed over Piper by a good two feet that felt closer to twenty as she stopped at the edge of the Publick’s porch. Piper stood her ground and, much to her credit, decided to be merciful and curtail the tirade she had worked so long and hard on.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>The suit of armor couldn’t shuffle awkwardly or maintain a properly chastised look on its face, so Piper was forced to imagine both as suited-up Nora scanned up and down the street. “Do you have time to talk?”</p><p>Voice modulated by the armor, Nora again refused to pay Piper her dues. She was supposed to feel terrible about leaving all of them to fend for themselves out here - which they had done, handily, and completely without her help. Some hero she was. This was the part where she was supposed to have a come-to-Piper moment and realize everything she had done was selfish and she could make it up to them by letting Piper tour the Commonwealth for a month.</p><p>So Piper took her time, holding the gaze of the armored suit for a long minute before at last gesturing almost carelessly to the little shed where she kept her printer. “Fine. But ditch the armor. You’re not fitting through the door like that.”</p><p>She didn’t wait to see what Nora did, but after the door to the Publick closed behind her, she listened with some satisfaction to the sounds of heavy armored boots clomping over toward her beloved printer. The intervening moments between this and Nora’s entrance she assumed were devoted to attaching a very large padlock to the armor and chaining it to something heavy. At least if it got stolen they would know when the home lost one of its walls.</p><p>When Nora did enter, Piper was already seated with practiced apathy at one end of the couch. It was with very real and unpracticed impatience that she watched the intimidating woman walk somewhat sheepishly to the middle of the room, surveying the coffee table awkwardly before speaking up.</p><p>“I heard you found your friend.”</p><p>Couldn’t even say her name, could she? “Yes, Olivia is fine, no thanks to you. My little sister nearly died trying to save her, you know.”</p><p>Nora seemed to flinch more from anger than shame but kept whatever snappy comeback she had behind her teeth. “I’m sorry to hear that.”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s a miracle any of us are still here. But we managed to get through. It just would have been a hell of a lot easier with you.” Piper gave her a look she hoped cut through that normally icy veneer and was pleased when Nora’s shoulders sagged. “But here you are, back from the Glowing Sea.”</p><p>Any other time and she would have been demanding a detailed account of a place few others had been and survived for longer than a few heartbeats. Most of the ones who came back endured horrible sickness for the remainder of their very abbreviated lives and the rest were unreliable as storytellers. She had met more than a few Gunner recruits trying to impress a young, attractive city-dweller with tales of twenty-foot-tall deathclaws and creatures that shot lasers out of their gaping maws.</p><p>That young, attractive city-dweller would have been inclined to believe Nora’s version, had she been in an asking mood.</p><p>“Yeah.” It was hard to tell if Nora was her normal, talkative self or if Piper’s cold shoulder was getting to her. “We found the scientist.”</p><p>Piper took a moment to school herself, doing her level best not to take that power armor and land herself the interview of the century. Just because Nora had found an Institute scientist alive and in person didn’t mean anything. She was still angry.</p><p>But right now it was really hard to put aside everything she had worked so hard to uncover. “Oh, good. We made a friend at the Institute, too, you know. He ruined my favorite coat.”</p><p>“You what?”</p><p>“Oh, sorry, that was part of the whole saving Olivia story. I’ll have to tell you sometime. It was pretty crazy.”</p><p>Now Nora was getting annoyed. “I told you, I wanted to help you. I wanted to find her, but you can’t just expect me to abandon my son to help every time she runs off! And it wasn’t like you were too concerned when you were rolling around with your friend in Goodneighbor.”</p><p>“I still had enough time to save her before a deathclaw got her.” Not true, but Nightshade was not here to correct her. If she had been, Piper would have been beating her senseless and there wouldn’t be nearly as much talking. “Information gathering takes many forms.”</p><p>“I’m sure that’s easy to say when you’re lying on your back in someone else’s bed.”</p><p>“You think I liked doing that? You think that’s what I wanted to happen? I was terrified for that poor girl! Nat was -” she cut herself off before she started shouting too much and before revisiting how crushed Nat had been when she learned Olivia was gone. “Look. I’m glad you’re back, but I don’t know what you’re doing here. You walked out on me when I needed you. Don’t expect me to just forget that.”</p><p>“I know, Piper. I’m sorry. I really am glad she’s alright. She seems like a good kid.” Nora managed to both look terribly contritious while also squaring her shoulders like a boxer with designs on Piper’s nose. “Listen. I want you to come with me again.”</p><p>Still angry, Piper felt like squirming and kicking a bit, even if this was someone offering her the inside scoop on the biggest bad guy in the Commonwealth. “I have a lot going on here, in case you haven’t noticed. The paper doesn’t run itself.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. Piper, this is the Institute. We have a way inside. The scientist  told me to find something called a Courser. They have a way in and out of the Institute. They’re the ones that can teleport there. If we can find one, get the chip out of its head, we can have someone dig through it and we can use their own system against them.”</p><p>What was it with this woman and pulling things out of people’s brains? “And you know where one is?”</p><p>Nora grimaced. “That’s a little tougher. But hey, if anyone can find an invisible needle in a haystack the size of Boston, it’s you.”</p><p>“They can turn invisible?” Of course they could. Nora looked at her like she was asking if they could walk and chew gum at the same time. “Great. So what do they look like?”</p><p>“Black leather trench coats, bad attitude, lots of Institute tech. They’re synths that get sent out to track down other synths, I guess. They don’t stay too long up here and work like special forces while they’re deployed, keeping to themselves and treating everyone around them as hostile. It’ll be hard to find one. I - what? What’s wrong?”</p><p>Piper had been staring at Nora for long enough for her to notice. Unbelievable. There wasn’t any other word for it. Before she could stop herself, a long groan escaped her lips. “I’m going to kill that girl.”</p><p>Nora, understandably confused, looked around the room. “Who?”</p><p>“Olivia.”</p><p>The name did not seem to illuminate things. “What, did she find one while I was gone?”</p><p>“Yep.” Piper stood up, pulling her coat off the rack and slipping it over her shoulders in a smooth, irritated motion. “And then her new girlfriend killed it.”</p><p> </p><p>“HUMAN! I WILL SQUASH YOUR BRAINS!”</p><p>Not wanting her brains squashed, Scribe Haylen decided to put her Brotherhood training and provided service weapon to use. Red bursts of energy answered the super mutant’s threats and made a satisfying, if still vaguely horrible sound as they burned into the green skin. She would have normally been grateful that she couldn’t see it, but at the moment, the thing shielding her from that sight was half a burning vertibird, and she would have very much preferred it to be in one piece. They had an annoying habit of falling out of the sky.</p><p>And she took that annoyance out on a not-so-innocent super mutant. “Bringing a board to a gunfight, huh? You’ve got style, asshole! Too bad you don’t have brains to back it up!”</p><p>The offended mutant cried out in pain and, as Haylen managed to hoist herself up over the side of the bird, she saw it only a few feet away, clutching its chest but still very angry. Her pistol blasted red a few more times and resolved its attitude problem once and for all.</p><p>More mutants scoured the wreckage, shouting from all directions and reminding her how few Brotherhood soldiers managed to survive a crashed vertibird in enemy territory. She knew the numbers and, more importantly, she knew her fusion cells were buried beneath a ton of burning metal. She would need to bum some off her comrades, assuming any were still alive. It sounded like it was just her.</p><p>The world around her was a storm of fire, the ground beneath her feet a cratered and blackened mess of pavement and tangled bodies. With a groan and a colossal heave, she managed to flop over the lip of the vertibird, sprawling out on the ground and further injuring her already broken leg.</p><p>When her vision cleared, she saw more mutants in the street. Four more, to be exact, all closing in on her with guns and cudgels raised. She didn’t have enough ammo for all of them. Determined to meet her death doing anything but lying down, she gritted her teeth and stood up.</p><p>By the time she got to her feet, two of the monsters were dead. The whip crack sound of sniper fire was punctuated by the high-pitched zip of heavy bullets finding their marks in meaty targets. The remaining two looked around before dropping their guns to the ground. One was scratching at a dart that now protruded from its neck, its eyes going big and black as they stared vacantly into the sky. The other had since scrambled down the street, presumably trying to outrun the final sniper round on all fours. From how long it took the last shot to ring out, it made it pretty far, too.</p><p>Haylen had always appreciated a bit of clean shooting, but at the moment she was too busy sizing up the woman who had done the deed to care. The syringer was an odd choice of weapon and only one person in the whole of the Commonwealth was currently using it to pen their signature. That woman, dark hair pulled back to better expose her smiling face, now strode toward the wounded scribe, cheerful as could be.</p><p>When asked about it later, she would blame her blood loss and ringing ears for her lackluster opening salvo. “Oh, fuck. You again.”</p><p>The woman, wearing a white shirt and dress pants among the piled bodies, stepped over the grime and gore without ever touching the ground, a feat that was somehow incredibly irritating. “Is that all you can manage? No praise for steady shooting or thanks for such a timely rescue? Don’t tell me I cut such a distracting figure that I’ve ruined my own moment. It would break my heart.”</p><p>Haylen rolled her eyes, and hoped her pained grimace added something to the gesture. “Can’t believe I didn’t recognize you the first time. You know the Brotherhood has a file on you? How’s it feel to be the most famous lowlife in the Commonwealth?”</p><p>The raider queen known as Nightshade stopped near the mutant Haylen had put down just moments before and frowned. “This must be an out-of-town thing. You’ll have to excuse me, I don’t get to travel quite as much as I’d like. Around here, when someone saves you from being torn apart by mutants, you say thank you. It’s very rude to call them a lowlife. I could have let them play with you a bit, I suppose, if that would match your expectations for the brutal savage that I am. I could string you up by meathooks and have you dangling in my private room until you forgot everything that came before those awful moments. I could slap a collar on your neck and see how much the locals would pay for such a lovely prize like you.”</p><p>It was the truth, but oftentimes it was better to ignore something that ugly and hope that someone else would tell it to go away. “I’d like to see you try.”</p><p>Nightshade pursed her lips. “I don’t think that you would. But it seems like it’s your lucky day.”</p><p>She chanced a look back at what remained of her vertibird, flames licking around the still-spinning rotor on the one remaining engine. “I don’t feel like it is.”</p><p>The raider came closer, squatting in front of her and smiling as she produced a syringe that any medic knew held the sweet ambrosia that was MedX. “I love a girl with a bit of fire in her, but seeing as I’m pressed for time, why don’t you save us both some trouble? I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to offer you a job.”</p><p>Her eyes lingered for too long on the MedX. She knew she would have been dead without the woman’s help. Her squad had probably died in the crash. Reinforcements would be minutes away, which in combat was as good as days. There was nothing for it but to give up. Besides, she liked to think she had a bit of a soldier’s honor about her.</p><p>She slid her laser pistol across the ground and groaned as Nightshade stabbed her with the syringe. Relief flooded her. It was like floating on a cloud, her body broken in the street miles below her, everything replaced by light and fuzzy blankets. Her head lolled back and bonked against something hard. She barely even felt it.</p><p>“Now there’s a face I like to see,” someone said as they picked her up. Was that still the raider bitch? She was strong. Really strong. “Come on, now. Let’s get you somewhere quiet. You’ll need to rest up if you want to ace your first interview.”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s nothing special.” Piper was an accomplished liar but this one was just too obvious to be ignored. “It’s just a research trip.”</p><p>Nat was on her before Olivia could properly call her out. “I don’t know why you’re helping her. It’s not like she helped either of you when you needed it.”</p><p>Olivia did appreciate the little girl’s indignity on her behalf but remained lukewarm on insulting Nora. She had lost her whole family and that had obviously hit her a lot harder than it had Olivia, especially since one member of her family was still out there waiting for her to find them. She was also a very frightening person and Olivia wanted to have as little to do with her as possible.</p><p>One dangerous woman was enough for her. “She comes back from the Glowing Sea and you’re leaving with her the same day?”</p><p>Piper rounded on her with a glare she wasn’t sure she deserved. “It’s important. It’s her kid. And this could break this whole Institute story wide open! I can’t just ignore that.”</p><p>Nat made an annoyed sound that gave Olivia time to compose herself. “She still should have helped Liv. You had to fight a Courser by yourself while she was out walking around in the Glowing Sea. Probably got lost without you holding her hand.”</p><p>She still hadn’t told Piper about Nightshade. For all Piper knew, Nightshade was just as much a pain in the ass to the Institute as she was. All things considered, they should get along famously. But spilling that secret to Piper also implied she should fill the Railroad in on her secret identity, and so with the list already doubled in size, Olivia held her tongue. That was Nightshade’s secret to tell, and she did not want to see what happened to people that spilled her secrets, even if she liked them.</p><p>“Look, she went and found some guy living under a rock and I didn’t have to go with her into the giant radstorm. I’ll call that a win.”</p><p>Olivia smirked. Her old lady influence was starting to get to the fearless investigator. Before they met, she probably would have gone into the storm in her coat and hat and an extra notebook just in case of emergencies.</p><p>“So where are you going?” Nat asked, plainly unsatisfied with her older sister’s explanation but still excited for the next adventure. Bad judgement must have run in the family.</p><p>“C.I.T.” Piper paused to give Olivia a look as she answered. Was she waiting for her to say something about her old school? “There’s supposed to be some way into the Institute from there.”</p><p>The look Nat was giving her should have killed. How was this her fault? She hadn’t said anything about the tunnels. She politely chose to ignore the look and scooched closer to Piper. “Is there - are you planning on going inside?”</p><p>Now it was Piper’s turn to smirk. “I’m not getting my hopes up that much, Blue. I’d settle for a riddle or a map or just anything, really.”</p><p>“Well what does she think is there?” Olivia still habitually avoided using Nora’s name as though that would clear up their relationship. “They’re supposed to be teleporting, right? So is there a big landing pad? An elevator?”</p><p>“She doesn’t know, it’s just where her new friend said we should start looking.” Piper again started to glare. What was her problem? They were just questions. “We’re just going to look through the ruins.”</p><p>Ever the people-pleaser, Olivia tried again. “It probably looks different now, but I could -”</p><p>“You are staying here!” Piper snapped, surprising Nat and Olivia both. “The last time you went out, I almost got turned into a pancake and super mutants almost played golf with my little sister!”</p><p>“How was that my fault?” Nat whined at the same time Olivia was making her own protests.</p><p>“Last time I went out? Last time you dragged me out, you mean! I wanted to stay here!”</p><p>“Then you’ll get what you want this time.” Piper said, putting a finger up toward Nat that meant she was on thin ice. “No more adventures for you - either of you. I’ve learned my lesson.”</p><p>“It turned out fine!” Nat was apparently just as accustomed to ignoring certain death as her sister and continued to complain despite Piper’s fury. “She fought off a deathclaw by herself and -”</p><p>“No, she had to get saved from that deathclaw by raiders! If that had been any other group, they would have just watched you get torn apart from the comfort of the nearest building.” Piper’s finger now swished like a rapier until the point was beneath Olivia’s nose. “One day, your luck is going to run out and your girlfriend isn’t going to be around to save you.”</p><p>Olivia had protested the label so many times she did not even need to verbalize it, leaving her more air to vent about other injustices. “You act like I wanted to get kidnapped by the Railroad.”</p><p>“Don’t even get me started with that. Now I know they’re out there and that they’re working in Goodneighbor and you’re an agent for them and I can’t print a single word. I don’t even want to know what would happen if I let you out again.”</p><p>“She’s the one who joined the Brotherhood,” Olivia groused, gesturing toward Nat and thereby throwing the small child under the bus.</p><p>“Big Green joined, not me,” Nat complained bitterly. “They didn’t offer me any power armor.”</p><p>“Yeah, why aren’t you angry at her for kidnapping my roach?”</p><p>Piper closed her eyes and tried for a long moment to blow steam out her ears. “This is why you’re both staying here. All of this. I’m going out with Nora, we’re going to find this Courser chip, and that’s it. We -”</p><p>“Courser chip?” Olivia interrupted. Piper froze at the slip of her tongue. “I thought you said -”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“But Nightshade -”</p><p>“I’m not taking you out to look for your girlfriend!” Piper threw her hands up and started walking toward the stairs. “We’re going to find one on our own, kill it, and then we’re going to use its chip to find the Institute. No one is getting shot or kidnapped or tied to anything and that’s final!”</p><p>Olivia followed her toward the stairs. “But she has the chip already! Just go ask her!”</p><p>“I’m not asking a raider for help!”</p><p>“Last time you fought one of these things it nearly killed you!” Olivia pointed to the burn mark on Piper’s favorite coat. She was still looking for a new one every day but this color seemed to be one of a kind. “Just ask her. Let me -”</p><p>“No.” Piper turned, pointing toward Nat as she trailed behind the two bickering women. “She needs to stay here and go to school. You need to - I don’t know, whatever it is you do down here. Just stay here, out of trouble, and don’t go doing…anything.”</p><p>“So you’d rather fight another of these things than talk to her?”</p><p>“Yes!” Piper bit off whatever she was going to say next to spit out “She’s a raider.”</p><p>It was hard to argue with that. “So? She’s less likely to shoot you than a Courser.”</p><p>“Not by much.” Again, it was hard to argue that. But not if - “And you’re not coming with me! I mean it. We’re going to go out, find a Courser, and that’s it. I don’t want to see that woman again. If she drops by and kidnaps you again, be sure to bring it up before you two… just stay here.”</p><p>Olivia knew that exasperated look. They had been over this like the old married couple they pretended to be and neither of them were eager to go over it again. Honestly, Olivia wasn’t even sure which side of the fight she wanted to take. Nightshade had certainly made her last exit memorable, but she hadn’t shown up since. And how was she even supposed to take the whole kiss-and-disappear thing? Was that normal out here? How did dating work when most nights out on the town involved swatting mosquitoes the size of beach balls and running from mutated cannibals?</p><p>The two shared a moment of silence, agreeing to pick this back up when Piper returned and they were back in the Publick, where uncomfortable conversations paid the bills.</p><p>“Fine,” Olivia said, turning to Nat and giving her a playful shove. “What do you say, kiddo? Want to get your sleeping bag?”</p><p>Nat still looked uncomfortable but nodded happily. She was beginning to get a feel for the Wright tradition that was leaving home on suicidal quests but it got no easier watching it from the cheap seats.</p><p>When Olivia looked back to Piper, her expression had gone unreadable again. Sure, they had their arguments when they got back from the news station, but they had still been family. This felt different. “What’s wrong?”</p><p>Piper seemed to jerk a bit at the question before shaking her head. “Nothing. Look, we’ll be fine. It’s Nora. We’ll find this thing so fast you’d think she could see it through walls and then…”</p><p>“Getting into the Institute?” Olivia finished.</p><p>“Yeah, simple as that,” Piper finished with a laugh. “Just make sure she does her homework. I’ll be back before you know it.”</p><p>“I will. Don’t have too much fun.”</p><p>And so departed the invincible deliverer of bad news, righter of wrongs, and judger of love lives new and old. She surely went with the best wishes of both her sister and her ancient friend but more than a little sorrow followed her, too. Nat loved her as only a younger sister could and Olivia loved her as only a lost time-traveller could. She would be missed.</p><p>Nat turned to Olivia, ready to give voice to that solemn parting and put to words how much she meant to both of them.</p><p>“Okay, she’s finally gone. Let’s get on to the good stuff.”</p>
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